Science is a practical approach to understanding the world around us that has matured throughout the history of humanity.

Throughout human existence, the role of science has been to guide the development of and better the quality of human life. Science has brought us the comfort that we so take for granted in 21st-century life. 

The Cambridge dictionary defines science as “Knowledge from the study of the structure and behaviour of the physical world, especially by watching, measuring, and experimenting to develop theories that describe the results of these activities.”

Science, as we know it today, has been defined by a series of key features that underpin the scientific process. 

Figure 1.  The key pillars of the scientific methodology as outlined by The science council.

A brief history

The role of scientific understanding has evolved throughout human history. The roots of science date back as far as ancient Egypt where the Egyptians and Mesopotamians laid the foundation of modern sciences such as astronomy, medicine and mathematics (Hessen et al., 2009).

These early contributions shaped Greek philosophy whereby attempts were made to provide explanations of events in the physical world based on natural causes (Grant, 2007). Following the fall of the Western Roman Empire, a great deal of knowledge was lost. Some of this ancient knowledge was recovered during the Islamic Golden age which flourished with help of Islamic scholars who built on the knowledge they had absorbed (Klein-Frank, 1996). During this period, European science and society struggled for many centuries.

The Renaissance was a complex period that is described as a cultural movement of intellectual inquiry that spread across Europe early in the first millennium. Humanism was a key theme of this movement, which manifest itself in the forms of art, architecture, politics, science and literature. Towards the end of the 16th century and not long before his death, Nicolaus Copernicus published his heliocentric model of the universe which placed the sun rather than the earth at the center of the universe. This historical paradigm shift was one of the great dominoes that contributed to the scientific revolution (Rosen, 1986). Scientific contributions such as these sustained the European Renaissance which brought us great minds such as Leonardo Da Vinci, Galileo and Michelangelo as well as inventions such as the telescope and camera obscura.

The European Renaissance and the new ideas that fuelled the scientific revolution culminated in what is known historically as the Age of Enlightenment, which dominated the 17th and 18th centuries. This societal shift placed reason at the centre of authority and legitimacy paving the way for the emergence of modern science. As the 19th and 20th centuries arrived so did the professionalism of science. Modern science is now comprised of many branches that are the foundations of society as we know it today. 

Francis Bacon, a pivotal figure in science history and a key contributor to the development of the modern scientific method of investigation, was quoted saying “the real and legitimate goal of sciences is the endowment of human life with new inventions and riches” (Hessen et al., 2009). 

Figure 2. A depiction of the Scale of the Universe mapped to the Branches of Science and the Hierarchy of Science. The Scale of the Universe capture the average diameters of key systems. 

Fun fact: It takes approximately 60 trillion atoms to make a human cell, there are roughly 32 trillion cells in a person, and 108 billion people have ever lived.

Five ways science can help your cannabis business

In many ways, we are in the midst of a 21st-century renaissance.  As we move forward in this digital age of information, science is now more accessible than ever. What was once reserved for esteemed individuals at the upper echelons of society is now accessible to the masses. Leveraging science provides a tremendous opportunity to look to science as a foundation of the development of the next generation of services, solutions and innovations that will help shape the future of humanity. This takes us into the five ways that Science can help your business today. 

• Protection from misinformation

An understanding of the fundamental scientific laws that underpin an industry provides an anchor point from which to assess and identify risks. This knowledge base is a protective layer that helps identify threats and faults before they escalate. Solve problems efficiently and reduce the impact of bad decisions. 

• Autonomy

A fundamental scientific understanding of your field provides an empirical approach to business offering independence and confidence in decision making. A workforce that is autonomous and empowered can operate with military precision, armed with unique perspectives and ideas to create a flourishing future. This means less management and more output. No longer relying on chasing trends but instead predicting and leading new trends with your new insights.  

• Differentiation

With autonomy comes the ability to differentiate from the competition and sow the seeds of your own unique identity. No longer relying on watching the competition and build a sustainable, long-term vision for your business and its legacy. So many stones have been left unturned, science is an exploratory tool that will help you navigate this nascent cannabis industry. 

• Social impact

A legacy is built on the social impact you bring about as a company. Science provides a means to measure the factors affecting communities and offer meaningful solutions to our ecosystem. Protecting the community from the potential harms of our business and building impact in the process. Science is a bridging language that can be used to develop and engage in a conversion with communities impacted by your work sharing culture, ethos and interpretations. 

• Discovery

Research and data are fundamental to building new hypotheses and planning for future expansion. Science and its unique methodologies will continue to advance understanding leading to the development of new intellectual property. As you uncover new findings you then benefit from the advantages and insights gained from your discoveries.

Science continues to play a pivotal role in the development of our civilisations. Learned societies, houses of wisdom, academies and institutions have provided scientific counsel to society for generations. Our cannabis science firm is here to support the cannabis industry with this next leg of 21st-century cannabis enterprise.  By combining science, education and technology we are saturating the cannabis industry with next generation of scientific services, solutions and innovations for the betterment of businesses and communities across the globe.

References

• Grant, E. (2007) A history of natural philosophy : from the ancient world to the nineteenth century. Cambridge University Press.
• Hessen, B. et al. (2009) The social and economic roots of the Scientific Revolution : texts by Boris Hessen and Henryk Grossmann. Springer. Available at: https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Social_and_Economic_Roots_of_the_Sci.html?id=PgmbZIybuRoC (Accessed: 4 August 2021).
• Klein-Frank, F. A.-K. (1996) History of Islamic Philosophy, History of Islamic Philosophy. Edited by S. H. Nasr and O. Leaman. Routledge. doi: 10.4324/9781003070733.
• Rosen, E. (1986) The Encyclopedia Americana. Grolier.

Chris Tasker
CEO
Global Cannabinoid Solutions

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