Without science, humans are forced to guess about the mysteries of the natural world. With science, humanity has learned a prodigious amount about how the universe works and how to make use of that knowledge. Science is a set of techniques of thought and tools of measurement that uncover aspects of nature previously unimagined. Through science, visible light has been found to be a mere sliver of the electromagnetic spectrum of radiant energies that pour down onto the earth, allowing humans to observe subatomic particles and the birth of distant stars. Visual and auditory signals that only animals can sense—high-frequency sounds emitted by bats to locate their prey, electric fields generated by fish to sense their way through dark oceans, and many other examples—have been detected and used to study creatures and their perceptions.

This great variety of sensory capabilities arises because animals have evolved to use precisely the information receptors they need to survive in their specific environments. For humans, three factors prepare the way to venture past evolved needs and abilities to invent civilizations that lead to scientific discoveries: human curiosity, the ability to abstract general principles from nature, and the invention of mathematics, which mirrors nature with uncanny precision, providing accurate answers to anyone regardless of cultural origin or gender.