In any academic area or professional field it is just as important to recognize the limits of knowledge and understanding as it is acquire new facts

In this world where science has revolutionized the way we live.Fields of academia are extremely diverse. Each field is advancing with continual research and innovation. As the frontiers of science are expanded by the humankind , it is indeed necessary to appreciate and recognize the limits of our understanding of any realm so that we stay on the path of progress in the field of discovery.

Let's assume that humankind momentarily believes that its understanding of science or any one realm of science is complete and fully understood. to see the consequences. We need not go far in history to find an example. In the field of astronomy, many astronomers believed a few centuries ago , that the sun revolves around the earth. This premise was backed by the vanguards , who at the helm , backed this idea so profoundly that they rejected any other school of thought which disagreed.Kepler was unfortunate to state the new laws of planetary motion. His views cost him his life. If only the astronomers listened to Kepler and debated with proof than scoff at his idea , the world would have realized the Kepler's laws of planetary motion much sooner.

A good reason for recognizing our limits of knowledge would be the necessity for innovators in any academic or professional field to think out of the box.They need to question the already laid out rules in the book.They need to understand the fundamentals in and out to succeed.In such an investigative process, it is a possibility that the existing premises are challenged and a drastic new approach is presented and proved. This fact is evident when Albert Einstein refused to accept the laws of Newtonian mechanics.He questioned its basis to develop the theory of relativity that does not obey the laws of motion postulated by Newton.

Yet another reason is that any scientific community needs competition. The diversity of thought and its application fosters competition that in its true spirit that tries to solve the same problem that boggles researchers in their respective realms. Competing thoughts help establish new theories and innovation is encouraged.Would it have been possible to see the internet revolution that has changed the way we live and communicate in the 21st century unless a set of university students at Berkley fundamentally wanted to alter the state of the computing world? They questioned the state where bulky mainframes ruled and brought the idea of distributed computing where computers cooperated to achieve a task. This idea required networking and it led to the birth of the Internet.

Summarily , for any scientific realm to remain vibrant, we need to recognize that there is more to be learnt and understood.The age old Tamil proverb outside NASA headquarters couldn't be more true and it is translated as:

" What is known to mankind is equivalent in size to a heap of sand, the unlearnt, unknown and unconquered is as big as the world."