“Why” is a very useful word
By Dr. Selim Erhan, TLT Editor | TLT From the Editor February 2024
Asking questions keeps our curiosity alive and leads to lifelong learning.
When we are younger, we ask a lot of questions. We have a great curiosity and want to expand and be able to do things with our newly acquired knowledge. As we grow older this tendency seems to decrease. Maybe we think we are getting saturated, or maybe we are overloaded with responsibilities? No matter what the reason, “why” is a very useful word until the end of our lives. In science we do ask a lot of whys and our careers depend on the answers we get to “why.” In fact, trying to answer these questions is more of a curiosity and the satisfaction of doing something useful rather than seeing it as a career. The answers lead to a lot of development, a lot of new questions and a lot more answers. Some say it keeps us young!
We should all keep asking why. If nothing else, it helps us remember better. For example, we hear the saying, “Do not microwave food in plastic containers.” If we don’t ask why, a few months down the road, just seconds before we are about to put a plastic dish into the microwave, we remember the saying, and for a few seconds we will be hesitant, but I am sure a lot of people will dismiss the idea and succumb to hunger and start the heating. If we had wondered why, we would have read that they are small molecules inside the long polymer chains that are put there to act as an internal lubricant to keep the plastic flexible. These plasticizers are not attached to the polymer chains. When heated, they start moving faster and, being much smaller, start escaping from the matrix and some go into the food. So why is this dangerous? Then we start another research, which may even lead us to get up from our comfortable chairs and start writing letters to ask for protection for ourselves and our families. You may come across articles that may link certain plasticizers to certain cancers. Then you may ask, if these materials are harmful when they enter the body, why some people get cancer and others don’t. Now we have another research, and you may come across books like the one I read recently and found to be very useful. It is called “When the Body Says No: The Cost of Hidden Stress,” written by Gabor Maté, M.D.
Another area where we really need to ask “why” is in suggestions and rules about safe practices—something as simple as why we need to wash our hands. If we were holding something like a pen, then we wash our hands but later pick up that same pen before we eat, those microbes, or at least some of them, are back on our hands! I have watched nurses come out from wherever they were with gloves, open doors, come to waiting patients who are coughing, take their temperature and then push the same door with the same gloved hand and go in. The next person touching that door handle will get whatever that patient was coughing. That same carelessness goes for cleaning crews who may not change rags when going from cleaning bathrooms to wiping the trays of patients. No wonder there are more than 100,000 unnecessary deaths due to infections in hospitals every year.
I once asked “why” when we had taken a cruise on one of these very large ships. I was curious when I did not see port side or starboard side written anywhere on the ship. Maybe it was not to confuse people. But then I thought port side was obvious, but starboard side? I looked it up, and now I will never forget it. During the times when ships had only sails, the last stage of maneuvering the ship to dock was done with oars. Most sailors were right-handed, so the stirring side was on the right. The “stirring side” later became the “stir side,” which after some time and adding the heavy sailor accent, eventually became starboard!
While I was putting the book I mentioned previously back in its place, I noticed another book, which is next in line to read: “Searching for the Amazons: The Real Warrior Women of the Ancient World,” by John Man. Did these women warriors really exist? They were said to be equal to men in war and peace. That will be the topic of my next article.
Dr. Selim Erhan is director of business development for Process Oils Inc. in Trout Valley, Ill. You can reach him at serhan@processoilsinc.com.