the american frontier is essentially infinite
Summary
Nathan Wolfe begins the talk by reflecting upon the time when he had to give a talk to a group of middle school children in Beloit, Wisconsin. At the end of his lecture, one of the girls asked Wolfe, "Where should we explore?" This, he claims, reflects a common idea espoused by numerous Americans, as they believe that the "golden era of exploration" is over-- we have already charted all the territories on Earth and we have already been to the moon. Wolfe contradicts this ideal by reflecting back on a visit to a biologist, Martinus Beigernick. Bergerinck was responsible for being the first to discover bacteria. This discovery was a little more than 100 years ago. Currently, viruses constitute a large proportion of biological knowledge-- all such knowledge was unknown at the time. Wolfe claims that us as a society is still blind to numerous aspects in biology. For example, about 20% of the genetic information taken from people's noses' didn't match anything else-- it didn't match any plant, fungi, virus, or bacteria-- they were essentially clueless to this aspect. This is an area that pioneer biologists will be attempting to explore. In fact, biologists have begun to call this missing information "biological dark matter." He equates this unknown information to an uncharted continent. The scientists who are attempting to learn about this "dark matter" have high hopes for what such knowledge could bring to science in the future-- maybe it could be a revolutionary discovery that changes our fundamental idea about biology. Or maybe it could allow us to identify the cause of cancer or create a new tool in molecular biology. He ends the lecture by reflecting again on how "a little over a hundred years ago, people were unaware of viruses, the forms of life that make up most of the genetic information on our planet." He argues that just because we have charted all the continents on this planet doesn't mean there is nothing left to explore on Earth. He states that we shouldn't assume that what we know--no matter what field its in-- is the full picture. Wolfe urged that we should "go after the dark matter" in our fields, whether its history or astronomy, there are unknowns around us everywhere that are eager to be discovered.
Connection to the Thesis
This artifact relates to the thesis because it portrays the progression of the metaphorical frontier of knowledge as a whole. He claims that the frontier is fluid, and it is constantly changing as we continue to advance our knowledge as a civilization. As Wolfe claims, there is always "dark matter" everywhere, and it's our duty to explore it and learn about it. His lecture portrays the progression of the metaphorical frontier of knowledge as a whole by talking about how a little over 100 years ago, we were completely oblivious to viruses. At that time, the idea of a "virus" was the "dark matter" of the time. Now that we are equipped with this knowledge today, we are baffled at how society was unaware of such a rudimentary concept. We currently take that knowledge for granted. Wolfe states that this will be our mind set later on about today's "dark matter." This is essentially the progression of knowledge-- each discovery, breakthrough, and exploration marks yet another advancement made by the American frontier.
Nathan Wolfe begins the talk by reflecting upon the time when he had to give a talk to a group of middle school children in Beloit, Wisconsin. At the end of his lecture, one of the girls asked Wolfe, "Where should we explore?" This, he claims, reflects a common idea espoused by numerous Americans, as they believe that the "golden era of exploration" is over-- we have already charted all the territories on Earth and we have already been to the moon. Wolfe contradicts this ideal by reflecting back on a visit to a biologist, Martinus Beigernick. Bergerinck was responsible for being the first to discover bacteria. This discovery was a little more than 100 years ago. Currently, viruses constitute a large proportion of biological knowledge-- all such knowledge was unknown at the time. Wolfe claims that us as a society is still blind to numerous aspects in biology. For example, about 20% of the genetic information taken from people's noses' didn't match anything else-- it didn't match any plant, fungi, virus, or bacteria-- they were essentially clueless to this aspect. This is an area that pioneer biologists will be attempting to explore. In fact, biologists have begun to call this missing information "biological dark matter." He equates this unknown information to an uncharted continent. The scientists who are attempting to learn about this "dark matter" have high hopes for what such knowledge could bring to science in the future-- maybe it could be a revolutionary discovery that changes our fundamental idea about biology. Or maybe it could allow us to identify the cause of cancer or create a new tool in molecular biology. He ends the lecture by reflecting again on how "a little over a hundred years ago, people were unaware of viruses, the forms of life that make up most of the genetic information on our planet." He argues that just because we have charted all the continents on this planet doesn't mean there is nothing left to explore on Earth. He states that we shouldn't assume that what we know--no matter what field its in-- is the full picture. Wolfe urged that we should "go after the dark matter" in our fields, whether its history or astronomy, there are unknowns around us everywhere that are eager to be discovered.
Connection to the Thesis
This artifact relates to the thesis because it portrays the progression of the metaphorical frontier of knowledge as a whole. He claims that the frontier is fluid, and it is constantly changing as we continue to advance our knowledge as a civilization. As Wolfe claims, there is always "dark matter" everywhere, and it's our duty to explore it and learn about it. His lecture portrays the progression of the metaphorical frontier of knowledge as a whole by talking about how a little over 100 years ago, we were completely oblivious to viruses. At that time, the idea of a "virus" was the "dark matter" of the time. Now that we are equipped with this knowledge today, we are baffled at how society was unaware of such a rudimentary concept. We currently take that knowledge for granted. Wolfe states that this will be our mind set later on about today's "dark matter." This is essentially the progression of knowledge-- each discovery, breakthrough, and exploration marks yet another advancement made by the American frontier.
"It's true, we may have charted all the continents on the planet and we may have discovered all the mammals that are out there, but that doesn't mean that there's nothing left to explore on Earth.. Beijerinck and his kind provide an important lesson for the next generation of explorers -- people like that young girl from Beloit, Wisconsin. And I think if we phrase that lesson, it's something like this: Don't assume that what we currently think is out there is the full story. Go after the dark matter in whatever field you choose to explore. There are unknowns all around us and they're just waiting to be discovered."
- Nathan Wolfe, What's Left to Explore?