John M. Barry articulates the struggles of combating influenza in 1918 through the realms of scientific research in his book The Great Influenza. In one passage of Barry's book, he characterizes scientific research in terms of an intricate interweaving of polar ideas; certainty versus uncertainty, known versus unknown, and concrete versus conceptual that serve as the foundation and parallel scientists with frontiersmen and miners in an attempt to convince the reader that science is more laborious and arduous than previously believed. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay. Scientific research exists in the thin periphery that separates certainty and uncertainty, known and unknown, concrete and conceptual; these theories often clash and create the paradoxical foundations of scientific research. These denying ideas are manipulated by Barry to educate the reader about the true complex aspect of science, rather than layman's understanding. By defining certainty as a concept that humans rely on and uncertainty as a restriction that causes people to be cautious and “uncertain,” Barry highlights the difference between the strength of certainty and the weakness of uncertainty. The author first introduces the contrasting ideas and then reveals that although science exists at the border, it is more of a permeable wall because science is an intertwining of all opposites. By stating that the weakness of uncertainty is actually a “deeper strength than physical courage” and that this courage is the courage to “accept – indeed, embrace – uncertainty,” Barry implies that scientists go beyond the quiet life of certainty and “venturing into the unknown” – which is full of doubt – to test their theories until it is certain. This paradox of the need to be in the unknown to discover the known is the fundamental value of science. If everything in the world were known, there would be no need to study the world through observations and experiments, which is the most basic definition of science. Instead, the discomfort of the unknown pushes scientists to reflect on and develop theories about the conceptual world. Barry alludes to Alice in Wonderland to complete his illustration. As fantastical as young Alice's world is, the science is the same; science must wander “through the looking glass into a world that seems completely different,” to bring order to the world. The double meaning of the mirror is itself a contrast. On the one hand the mirror recalls the glass of a microscope and the organization of the measurable, observable, concrete, pragmatic world and on the opposite the mirror also alludes to the chaotic, theoretical and abstract aspect of science. The difficult task of a scientist is “to bring order out of chaos, to create form, structure and direction”. Science can be attracted by the Asian value of Yin and Yang. Although composed of complete opposites, science relies on each of the conflicts to exist and live in a delicate balance. As Barry illustrates, this balance is where scientific research resides and grows. Barry recognizes the analytical, innovative, and courageous characteristics of frontiersmen and miners and compares these occupations to the work of a scientist with rhetorical questions and extended metaphors. By presenting a series of rhetorical questions that mimic the mental process of deciding between using a shovel, a pickaxe, or a stick of dynamite in a hypothetical scenario, Barry suggests that scientific research is as analytical as an excavator. Scientists must evaluate all possible options and each of their outcomes; every context is different. The questions.