The Union Army will be remembered as winning the Civil War. Genghis Khan will be remembered for invading China. Yet Darwin’s Theory of Evolution may change as may Newton’s Three Laws of Motion. Unlike history or basic mathematics, the world of science changes ad infinitum.

Science is unique because every day something new is discovered, often changing or challenging older theories. Science, from quarks and leptons to the galaxy clusters of our universe, holds immeasurable secrets that are exposed every day. With each new discovery the human race decodes a few more words of the ancient scroll that is the cosmos. Day by day, we decipher the code of the universe. Unlike history and literature which can be explored only so far, science is endless. Its beauty is that it represents the past, the present, and the future; there may always be something new to discover.

No matter how well humans understand the universe, science will still have a long future. This fact has been demonstrated to me by the diverse modifications I have witnessed in science in just my 17 years. In less than two decades, I have witnessed an enormous advance in technology as well as general knowledge of science. Surgeries that were thought complex at my birth are now routine, and computers once classified as sophisticated are archaic. Pluto, which during my childhood was considered a planet of our solar system, has been reclassified.

If such dramatic developments can occur in such a short time, who knows what the world will be like by the next century? This makes science distinctive; the realization that a more efficient technique to solve the world’s most thorny troubles may be just around the bend. Perhaps an efficient way to kill certain cancer cells or eradicate HIV is imminent. Science is enthralling because the answers to these troubles that plague the world today exist and could be discovered at any moment.