We might describe science that has no known practical value as basic science or basic research. Our exploration of worlds such as Jupiter would be called basic science, and it is easy to argue that basic science is not worth the effort and expense because it has no known practical use. Of course, the problem is that we have no way of knowing what knowledge will be of use until we acquire that knowledge. In the middle of the 19th century, Queen Victoria is supposed to have asked physicist Michael Faraday what good his experiments with electricity and magnetism were. He answered, “Madam, what good is a baby?” Of course, Faraday’s experiments were the beginning of the electronic age. Many of the practical uses of scientific knowledge that fill our world ― transistors, vaccines, plastics ― began as basic research. Basic scientific research provides the raw materials that technology and engineering use to solve problems.

Basic scientific research has yet one more important use that is so valuable it seems an insult to refer to it as merely functional. Science is the study of nature, and as we learn more about how nature works, we learn more about what our existence in this universe means for us. The seemingly _____________ knowledge we gain from space probes to other worlds tells us about our planet and our own role in the scheme of nature. Science tells us where we are and what we are, and that knowledge is beyond value.

* space probe: 우주탐사기(機)