We are connected now more than ever before—at every level—as physicists, scientists, members of society, and as humans. The advent of faster travel and instant communication connects people of all backgrounds across national, political, and ethnic borders.
In the modern connected world, physics is no longer an arcane science restricted to those with a PhD: physicists collaborate with biologists, engineers, and economists to help with education, climate science, and energy production. These are issues that affect everyone, and an understanding of physics enables involvement and brings new perspective for the betterment of all.
Physicists have a responsibility not just to discover, but also to share and to educate. Science plays a key role in a connected world, but it is not an automatic one. We must choose to forge the links between science and society, between the lab and the living room, and across the barriers that constantly threaten to divide the world. We must choose to bring physics to all.
Society of Physics Students: The SPS Observer
"Education, on the other hand, means emancipation. It means light and liberty. It means the uplifting of the soul of man into the glorious light of truth, the light only by which men can be free. To deny education to any people is one of the greatest crimes against human nature. It is to deny them the means of freedom and the rightful pursuit of happiness, and to defeat the very end of their being. They can neither honor themselves nor their Creator. Than this, no greater wrong can be inflicted; and, on the other hand, no greater benefit can be bestowed upon a long benighted people than giving to them, as we are here this day endeavoring to do, the means of useful education."
Frederick Douglass, Blessings of Liberty and Education, Teaching American History.
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