Discoveries inspire us, give us hope for a better future and pay off generously
Schoolbooks typically present explorers as intrepid individuals who, at the behest of colonizing leaders, sail wooden ships to new lands, ride on horseback across uncharted mountains or slash their way through the jungle. But today most explorers who are making fundamental discoveries are scientists. And whether the frontiers are minuscule, like the human genome, or massive, like our deepest oceans, we still have much left to learn about planet Earth.
Exploration has great value. It inspires us, widens our knowledge and gives us hope for a better future. And the practical payoffs can be plenty. Some are even lifesaving. Scientists who spent decades exploring what was in the atmosphere found that over time the concentration of carbon dioxide was rising.
That drive to take on challenges often spurs innovation. Technological advances have always helped the intrepid, and the inventions keep coming. Early human submersibles that reached the bottom of the deepest ocean trenches made the trip just once, stressed by the enormous pressures there. But eventually a more stress-resistant deep-submergence vehicle, the Limiting Factor, allowed investor and undersea explorer Victor Vescovo to reach trench bottoms numerous times.