The Frontiers and Limits of Science

Since the beginning of culture, man has been curious about the world in which he lives; he has continually sought explanations for his own existence and for the existence of the world?how it was created, how it developed and brought forth life and humankind, and how one day it will end. Early ideas on the subject were developed in mythological, religious, or philosophical frameworks. All these ideas have a common characteristic: they are directed to the totality of the phenomena; they want to account for everything that is. They intend to present the absolute truth by at tempting to give immediate answers to the fundamental questions of existence: Why is the world the way we find it? is is the beginning and the end of the universe? Several hundred years ago, human curiosity took a different turn: instead of reaching for the whole truth, people began to examine de finable and clearly separable phenomena. They asked not What is matter? and What is life? but What are the properties of mat ter? and How does blood flow in the blood vessels?; not How was the world created? but How do the planets move in the sky? In other words, general questions were shunned in favor of limited ones for which it seemed easier to get direct and unambiguous answers.