Wendy Schmidt: Three centuries of science is something to celebrate

Three centuries of science is something to celebrate George Washington died at the age of 67 not knowing that dinosaurs ever existed. In 1799, our country’s first president was suffering from a sore throat, likely the result of a simple bacterial infection. Washington’s doctors selected a treatment that we now know contributed to his death: bloodletting. As the semiquincentennial of our country arrives, it is worth considering how far we’ve come, even if we have a long way to go. And examining our history not through the lens of politics or wars but rather through science offers a universal way to celebrate our achievements. Reflecting on all we’ve learned and all we have yet to learn, let’s forge ahead into a better future by supporting science and scientists who are advancing our ability to protect and enhance our lives. But first, back to George Washington, who was also treated in his final day alive with mercury chloride, an emetic, an enema and a paste of Spanish flies applied to his throat. Approaching death, he asked that he not be buried within the first 72 hours, just in case he wasn’t actually dead, which was a harder thing to ascertain then. If he looked to the stars before he died, he would never have known that anything existed beyond the Milky Way. Scientists were only just starting to consider that the Earth was millions instead of thousands of years old. There was no scientific knowledge of dinosaurs, no concept of extinction. We’ve come a long way, to say the least, and the way we see the world around us, indeed the universe, continues to evolve. We’ve had life-changing breakthroughs, accelerating through the decades, especially after World War II and the ascension of the “endless frontier” in American scientific investment. Many people continue to hold tight to the conceptual vision of an America that embraces science, technology and engineering, and leads the world. It’s the America that developed the polio vaccine, defeated fascism in Europe, end