These exciting and important new career openings in the environmental sciences, visual sciences, and behavioral sciences all require a more and better educated 21st century populace. The vast majority of these new jobs and roles require a master's degree in science or a doctorate in a science. It is almost impossible to get into any of these jobs without some measure of institutionalized higher learning experience.
Consider the visual science fields such as optics, the scientific study of light and vision, which includes research into the phenomena related to the generation, transmission, and detection of electromagnetic radiation from x-rays to radio waves — the optical spectrum. The scientific study of these phenomena covers a wide array of different desirable and useful applications: Laser research for medical, electronic, and entertainment purposes...The improvement of telescopes and receiver dishes for space science and astronomy...Improved microscopes for chemistry and other scientific researches...Faster, more accurate communications...And a host of others.
Another branch of visual sciences is ophthalmology. Advancement in this field helps people to better improve and maintain their eyesight. Eye and sight problems and abnormalities such as repeated infections, glaucoma, dry eyes, vision decay or loss, double vision, and eye tumors can all be better treated or cured through advancements in ophthalmology. One cutting edge application here is the new science and technology of neuroprotection, where poor blood circulation is analyzed for how it affects eye tissues' nerve damage, so that new treatments can be developed to protect eyesight.
Investigation into the molecular changes which transform a normal eye lens into a cataract is also being done; it is now believed that this area of research could see cataract development stopped or even done away with entirely, eradicating this common visual illness in the future. And still another cutting edge in visual sciences field is research into the connection between impaired visual memory and impaired eyesight.
Then there are the environmental sciences. One of aspect of this is what Dr. Oliver Markley of the University of Houston has called ''One of [the 21st] century's' most promising advancements in environmental science.'' This is colloidal chemistry. With this technology, it's possible to convert the extracts of natural plants into unbelievably powerful but at once gentle solutions for dissolving oil, grease, slime, tough stains, and so many more of the hydrocarbons (oil molecules) that are at the base of 99% of all degreasing and cleansing problems. With natural plant-based, non-acidic, non-caustic, and hypoallergenic cleansers from processed extracts of the cactus, corn, potatoes, grains, various trees, and others being blended together at specific time intervals and temperatures, and in particular orders, ''colloidal micelles'' are created — particles so small (.000000001 square cm) that only the most advanced electronic microscopes can see them. Colloidal micelles surround and emulsify oil molecules from each other or the surface they are clung to. This process enables these molecules to be very easily brushed away as if they were mere dry dirt particles on a wooden or ceramic tiled floor.
Then there's the burgeoning field of environmentally applied nanotechnology, which involves research into things such as the corrosion of advanced alloys, the ways hazardous wastes specifically affect soil or human habitations, and the radical transformation of radioactive materials by microbes. Environmental nanotech tools and computer programs and software are needed to solve the many problems associated with these and other environmental sciences matters.
And, there's even our national security to consider — enter the role of the behavioral sciences. In the U.S. Congress, the chair of the Research and Science Education Subcommittee, Rep. Brian Baird (D-WA), has said, "One of my goals is to raise the profile of the social sciences, but also to emphasize that they have to have more relevance than they sometimes do. We hope to expand the awareness in Congress of the new challenges our military is facing, and the new resources we need to meet those changes."
Along with him, a Republican on the Science and Technology Subcommittee, Rep. Vernon Ehlers of Michigan, has said that ''social and behavioral research is of crucial importance to this entire nation and our own security as we move forward in an ever-changing world filled not only with new technological advancements, but also with increasingly complicated human dimensions.''
One important area that's being opened up dramatically by advances in behavioral science research is what's known as Life Coaching. Psychiatrist Dr. Nathaniel Branden writes, "Psychotherapy, traditionally, rests on the premise that the client has been damaged by some past event(s), and needs to be [repaired] or healed. The concern is with the past and the present. Life coaching rests on the premise that the client possesses unrecognized resources with which [s/he] can develop strategies that lead aspirations to their fulfillment. The focus is on the present and the future. Traditional therapy is about excavating and neutralizing negatives. Life coaching is about liberating positives. It is about putting the client in touch with [one's] own wisdom and creativity."
A great concern to many today is how "drugged up" we are as a society, and as a consequence there is a movement that resists the emphasis on prescribing powerful synthetic drugs to target behavioral or psychological problems. Life coaching skills and other holistic behavioral sciences' concepts and approaches will be in great demand in the near and foreseeable future.
Currently, the average annual pay for the science jobs mentioned in this writing is $62,000.
