Occasional Paper: The Pursuit of Happiness

As I left my soccer class last Thursday, I mused that I felt happier than I had in a while. This prompted me to think of the endorphins that were no doubt filling my head and the dopamine transactions occurring in my brain. What I described as endorphins did others feel as happiness? Was the pursuit of success really just the quest for a fulfillment of a chemical imbalance?  And what made us feel the happiest? I think of all the things that we as living beings could be addicted to: drugs, power, money, even love. I think of my Chemistry labs which I passed in misery and thought how there was some way to make a chemical that would reward my brain with endorphins. I felt this was ironic since I was pretty sure my dopamine levels plummeted every time I endured the three hour lab. Why do our brains have such a reward system? In a world where survival was of the upmost importance, why would we value friendship and family even when being alone requires less resources? Obviously because more people equals more work. But what about when someone gets sick? Why do we not abandon them? What makes us place ourselves in others’ shoes and attempt to feel what they feel? I think about the television show What Would You Do? And how so many people were able to walk past someone who was in trouble. Are we losing the thing that makes us human? Our compassion? Our love for mankind? I think of how science has often lead us to think objectively, in many instances causing wars and genocides. But after my brisk walk on campus, I wonder if somehow we can use science to fix these problems. I answer my own question with, “Of course we can, that’s why I’m a science teacher.” And feel my endorphin levels soar once more. 

This relates to science because I was able to take my everyday life and relate it to topics we cover in science such as hormones and the endocrine system. This could prompt discussions such as, "What everyday science experiences can you describe? Or how does science correlate to our everyday world? It could also prompt psychological discussions such as the one I grapple with in my paper about how far can we take science? Are there ways to explore how things work without destroying the wonder and importance of nature? Of life? How do we as scientists balance that very thin line between objectivity and subjectivity as we explore the world?