Question: Why do you study science?

Kristian Harder answered on 13 Nov 2013:

Above all, curiosity. I think some people study science because they see it as a good job opportunity, potentially high income and good and secure jobs overall. And it’s true, with high levels of qualification such as a university degree you are much less likely to end up without a job. But to really become a scientist, just aiming for a good job is probably not enough. (If you end up in publicly funded science such as we particle physicists, then the jobs are not *that* good in terms of salary anyway. The rule of thumb is that if you leave science and go working in a company or bank, you might well earn twice as much as in publicly funded science. ) It’s better to be really really curious about something. I studied physics with the intention of becoming a scientist, doing fundamental research. But it did help my determination to go down that route to know that if I don’t get a job in science, good training in physics will open a lot of alternative opportunities for me. Physicists work in banks (because of their applied mathematics knowledge), in software companies (because of logic and usually programming skills that we need for science), in all kinds of engineering jobs (because of the technical skills that usually come along with doing experimental science), in project management (because we are used to working in big teams and coordinating work).
Ok, I guess I am drifting off topic here, but what I tried to say is that the number one reason for studying science should be curiosity about something, and if you are curious about something, then nothing should stop you from studying science, because there’ll almost always be interesting jobs for you to do.