John M. Barry articulates the struggles against influenza in 1918 through the expanses of scientific research in his book The Great Influenza. In a passage from Barry's book, he characterizes scientific research in terms of a complex web of Antipodean ideas; certainty versus uncertainty, known versus unknown, concrete versus conceptual which serves as its foundation and parallels scientists, pioneers 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 should not be banned”? Get an original essay. Scientific research exists on the thin periphery that separates certainty and uncertainty, the known and the unknown, the concrete and the conceptual; these theories often clash and create the paradoxical basis of scientific research. These denialist ideas are manipulated by Barry to educate the reader on 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 requiring people to be cautious and “tentative,” Barry highlights the difference between the strength of certainty and the weakness of uncertainty. The author first presents the contradictory ideas, then reveals that although science exists on the boundary, it is more of a permeable wall because science is a tangle of all opposites. By expressing that the weakness of uncertainty is actually a "strength deeper than physical courage" and that this courage is the courage to "accept – and even embrace – uncertainty", Barry implies that Scientists go beyond the unproblematic life of certainty and "venture into the unknown" - which is full of doubt - to test their theories until they are sure. 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 it through observations and experiments – which is the most fundamental definition of science. Instead, the discomfort of the unknown pushes scientists to think and develop theories about the conceptual world. Barry alludes to Alice in Wonderland to complete his illustration. As fantastical as young Alice's world, the science is the same; science must wander “through the looking glass into a world that seems entirely different” to bring order to the world. The double meaning of the mirror is a contrast in itself. On the one hand, the mirror resembles the glass of a microscope and the organization of the measurable, observable, concrete and pragmatic world and, on the other hand, the mirror also alludes to the chaotic, theoretical and abstract aspect of science . The difficult task of a scientist is to “precipitate order out of chaos, to create form, structure and direction.” Science can draw inspiration from the Asian value of Yin and Yang. Although it is composed of complete opposites, science relies on each of these conflicts to exist and live in a delicate balance. As Barry illustrates, it is in this balance that scientific research resides and thrives. Barry recognizes the analytical, innovative, and courageous characteristics of pioneers and miners and compares these professions to the work of a scientist with rhetorical questioning and extended metaphors. By presenting a series of rhetorical questions that mimic the thought process of deciding between using a shovel, a pickaxe, or a stick of dynamite in a hypothetical scenario,.