People know

The esteemed mission of Science cannot afford to squander knowledge captured in people’s experience. The challenge is how to make good and trustable use of this obscure, distributed, and rough treasure. 1 Mission ‘knowledge’ Technically, both science and episteme — its Greek counterpart — are about knowledge (scire [L]; histanai [Gk]). Science formally employs research as a means of collecting what each specialist knows, bringing it all together, and thus taking the next step forward in the intended direction. The contribution of research can come at different ‘quanta ’ (literally, quantities) — Table 1. Quantum Achievement Value Encountered in... 4 knowledge the full experience living, doing 3 understanding explanations scientific articles, textbooks 2 information lessons / learning business reports, newspapers 1 data facts databases, fact sheets Table 1 With knowledge being the ideal state, research work often settles for less Data are facts — for instance, the highest peak of Mount Everest is 8,848m above sea level, featuring dramatically reduced air pressure and oxygen concentration levels. Information is what we learn from the facts, often with practical applications — for instance, it is (relatively) difficult to breathe at Mount Everest, at least before the body adapts to these conditions, so an oxygen supplement may be required. We can obtain physiological explanations for how the body reacts to such extreme conditions over time, so we can develop some understanding. But until we have been on top of Mount Everest, we will not know what high altitude means in practice — how it feels to be there. cbnd ISSN: 2182-811