Dave Adcock, the BBC radio solent "thought for the day" producer asked me to give four thoughts between June 2nd and June 5th 2009 live on local radio. You can listen to number 1 here and the text is below:
Day 1: both… and
Good morning,
Earlier this year my three week old son was rushed into Southampton general hospital with a serious undiagnosed heart condition. Thanks to the skill and dedication of the staff in the paediatric intensive care and cardiac units his life was saved and he has made a full recovery with no anticipated future problems.
All parents find such an experience highly traumatic, and my wife and I were no exception. However, as a medical scientist, someone who is used to using sophisticated technology to explore the workings of the human body, a part of me found the whole experience extremely interesting. I was able to watch the stats on the monitors as various drugs took affect and his body responded in a complex, yet predictable way, to the expert medical treatment.
But this was no experiment; this was my son. Although the scientific part of me could view the situation fairly dispassionately, the human side of me was crying out for him to just get better. Although I could understand much of what was going on, and see the reason for the various treatments and their effects, having all the knowledge in the world was not going to change how I experienced the situation.
Understanding science and technology is certainly important to our lives, and central to human wellbeing, but viewing life through this dispassionate lens is not all there is. Truth is as much about human experience as it is knowing the facts. Scientific knowledge will enrich our lives but only up to a certain point. It is a tool, not an end in itself - life is far more than just atoms and molecules.
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