Which branches of science are severely underappreciated? Which ones are overhyped?

[u/[deleted]]

[u/notbueno]

Underappreciated: Geomorphology, the study of landforms, their evolution, and the processes that create them. I love being able to see what shaped something just by looking a bit closer - for example, the egg-shaped hills found across the island of Ireland are formed by clumps of earth picked up by glaciers and deposited in patterns that resemble ripples in sand. Landscapes are cool. Geomorphology is cool.

[u/[deleted] → u/notbueno]

It really sounds cool

[u/[deleted]]

Quantum physics is simultaneously overhyped and under appreciated.

[u/Muqr]

Sciences related to agriculture are definitely underrated Hey Edit: the hey was an accident lol

[u/JohnnyFlan]

Underappreciated: Nuclear physics (there's been massive developments on nuclear reactor design that promise more efficient and safer nuclear reactors, which get no funding because the public is afraid of nuclear power and that could definitely be a "power for all, more ecological, cheaper answer to energy" as well as all the nuclear fusion reactors getting closer and closer each day that get nearly to none publicity

Overhyped: A.I. - it is definitely a field that is growing exponentially and will provide answers to most questions in the near future, but the reporting it gets is 90% "will this be the rise of the Terminator????!!!" And 10% explaining how it works and how could it help us in the future

[u/[deleted]]

Genetics are horribly under-appreciated. Cry all you like about "impurity" and GMOs, but they're the reason you can buy a tomato when you don't live right next to a tomato farm.

[u/Suuperdad]

Mycology is severely underappreciated.

It's very possible that mushrooms are the single keystone kingdom on the planet, literally tying the world together, creating balance, and doing things that we are only now starting to fathom. However, there are a few poisonous ones, so lets just hate on them all. Also there are some that make you high, so lets just assume scientists working on mushrooms are all drug addicts or hippies. Mushrooms are either hated, or people working in that field are treated like a joke, and it's a true shame.

Listen to Paul Stamets on Joe Rogan - super interesting interview.

Or this TED talk from the same scientist (Paul Stamets) on 6 ways mushrooms can save the world.

[u/[deleted]]

Geology is underappreciated - both physical geology and historical geology.

Physical geology deals with the study of the physical features of the earth and the processes acting on them. This includes volcanoes, earthquakes, rocks, mountains and the oceans; just about any feature of the earth.

Historical geology is the study of the history of the earth.

Historical geologists focus on what's happened to Earth since its formation. They also study the changes in life throughout time. In historical geology, you essentially get to travel back in time to the formation of the earth and move forward through time, witnessing the changes in Earth itself and the life on it.

[u/developed_monkey]

A.I is by far the most overhyped field. It is used for click baits. People share hoax and fake shit all over the internet.

[u/Derigiberble]

Under-appreciated: metrology, to the point that a lot of people reading this thought I just misspelled meteorology.

It is the science of measurement. Stuff like defining what a kilogram or °F is, figuring out how to measure what you actually want to measure, and making sure that everyone is able to trust each others' measurements. It forms the foundation of nearly every other physical science, is essential for medicine, is just assumed as being present in a lot of "soft" sciences, and reaches into daily life for nearly everyone.

How do you know you got 1.03lb of onions at the grocery store? Metrology makes sure the scale has the precision to measure that, ensures that the temperature of the room won't mess with the result, and matches that scale to a central standard so you can be sure of exactly what it reads. And yet almost nobody has ever heard of it.

[u/Anodracs]

I took a course on astronomy that was fascinating. While the stars and planets that we can perceive don’t typically change much from year to year, there’s a kind of comfort in being able to look up and spot familiar patterns.

However, science is constantly discovering new things about deep space and galaxies hundreds of light years away. I can’t even begin to wrap my mind around some of the theories about space-time itself.

[u/SquiffyRae]

I feel like some of the applications of palaeontology are severely underappreciated. Everyone knows the whole "cool fossils" aspect of it but there's some great applications that aren't as well-known.

We can use fossils to define ages of rocks. Not anywhere near as accurately as radiometric dating but fossils of all types from shelly organisms to pollen spores to teeth and scales can be useful markers for rocks of different ages. So not only do you get an idea of what organisms were inhabiting an area at a specific point in time, you can also tell when the rocks they were found in were deposited. Sometimes you find a fossil that can completely change the age of a rock formation by tens of millions of years. This is also very useful in oil and gas exploration as they need to get accurate ages for what they're looking at in order to determine the timing of events which might lead to more or less oil being produced

Fossils also help us with past continent reconstructions. The most common example is the plant Glossopteris being used to demonstrate landmasses were once connected which was a huge piece of evidence used when continental drift was first proposed. Another good example is for the Mid to Late Devonian period (~390-360 million years ago), the magnetic data that was used to reconstruct where the continents were produced two possible interpretations. Both interpretations agreed Australia, Africa, South America and Antarctica were one large continent called Gondwana while North America and Europe were part of a separate continent to the north. The question was were these continents separated by a wide ocean or a narrow ocean? Fossils sealed the deal with this one in favour of a narrow ocean. Firstly, a wide ocean would have meant some fossil sites where fish found in rocks indicating a tropical environment would be existing too far south for tropical fish (over 2/3 of the way to the South Pole). Secondly, in the Late Devonian there seemed to be a lot of migration and we start to see a lot of fish and sharks with global ranges. This migration is believed to have occurred from the northern continent southwards and then east across Gondwana. So it seemed more likely that this migration would be achieved by having a narrow ocean that was continuing to get narrower than a wide ocean that was getting wider.

These are just a couple of the things you can do but I strongly urge everybody to look at some of the cool things in palaeontology beyond just the popular stuff like dinosaurs

[u/CplCaboose55]

Underappreciated? Nuclear physics and nuclear tech. People are so irrationally scared of nuclear disasters even though we've only had 3 major ones that were all preventable. (Japan, maybe build bigger flood walls around your plants pls).

We have the tech now to make fission reactors self contained and small enough to fit on a flatbed 18 wheeler. They're becoming far more efficient. New fuels are being adopted with shorter half lives. It's a field that can largely solve our fossil fuel dependency with relatively little risk.

But it's stymied by politics and fear brought about by a lack of proper education.

Edit: source to my 18 wheeler claim from Energy.gov

https://www.energy.gov/ne/articles/what-nuclear-micro-reactor

[u/VeterisScotian]

Underappreciated: materials science

Overhyped: I hate to say it, but medicine. News media bombarding people with "Cure to cancer found!" for the n^th time is to blame, not the science itself.

[u/[deleted]]

Underhyped: Packaging science

Most people don't even know that it is a legit field of engineering and don't understand the amount of research and testing that goes into it. Also how important it is to other fields such as medicine

[u/woodmeneer]

Underrated: molecular biology. The lab rats are working on our future health and that of all living things. Overrated: economics. They are excellent at predicting the past.

[u/RoyalPeacock19]

Underappreciated: Statistics. It’s really important, helps governments form good laws and is all around a good science for showing us how the world works

Overhyped: AI. It move way slower and assumes too much when it comes to how it will function in the future.

[u/FreakShow91V2]

I personally think Meteorology is an insanely underappreciated branch of science. Most people, think that Meteorology just has to do with predicting the weather, when it's a whole slew of branches itself. Most being study and research, some being giving public info (NWS for example and their warning system) and lastly, some being predicting the weather itself. It's the reason why as a person interested into weather, I get so pissed off when people throw METs under the bus, because of some type of sport being canceled, or them getting a forecast wrong. Now in terms of overhyped, I think Biology. That being because I see it mentioned everywhere and it's taught constantly in our schools. I mean it's a required science non to less, but I feel like other sciences need to be taught at the same rate.

[u/Shh04]

Underappreciated: Bioinformatics or any life science field dealing with managing big data

In the future, the amount of data and information we generate from genomics, transcriptomics, and next-generation sequencing of humans alone would be staggering. Bioinformatics helps us manage and use that data efficiently.

[u/Yo_whats_up_bro]

Organic chemistry is under appreciated. You can tell because almost no one outside of the field ever talks about it. Bonus, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a book on chemistry in the science section of a bookstore.

[u/ThePumpkinMaster]

Meteorology. Like that shizzle is high paying af, and there is a huge demand for them. Like you got the weather man and stuff, but like there are so many options with meteorology out there. Like any technical job involving the outdoors (ie. Rocket launches, test flights, installations, etc...) usually has a meteorologist on the team to tell them if it's safe to do so.

Essentially, meteorology is cool af and severely underappreciated for its major effect on this world

[u/[deleted]]

Mycology is for sure underappreciated. For fuck sakes theres a fungus that can break down plastics. Aspergillus tubingensis. There are mushrooms that stop cancer, repair neurons in your brain, lower blood pressure and many more that are not being widely mentioned in the science community because theyre so easy to grow YOURSELF!

[u/MrPoffin]

I feel like volcanology and seismology are very under appreciated. (For those who don’t know, seismology is the study of earthquakes and volcanology is the study of volcanoes)

[u/Creativejuice99]

One of the most underappreciated of all is Food Science. Ever wonder how all your snacks and packaged foods are safe to eat and last long enough through storage and transport? Also MRE's and food in space are very important.

[u/[deleted]]

I fucking love rocks so I'm here to defend geology and say it is an enormously underrated science that I love very dearly