Don't turn red

When driving to work, most of us, no matter our beliefs, usually let out the two same never-ending chants. “Please don’t turn red, please don’t turn red, please don’t turn red, oh please don’t turn red…” and the ever favourite “I can make it, I can make it, I can make it…”

In vain we try our best to exert whatever physic powers we may possess to keep the traffic light staying green, while manoeuvring through masses of other cars that obviously are not as busy and in a hurry as we are. Other people don’t have to get to work to right? They just want to be on the road at silly o’clock in the morning for no reason whatsoever. Except maybe to bother us poor few, on our daily commute.

However, most of us don’t have psychic powers. Chances are you can’t make it through and you shouldn’t even try the accelerator because you’ll have to break very fast. The traffic lights will turn red, and sometimes maybe your face will too, no matter how often and how much will power you put into your daily incantations.

Sometimes though I bet a few of us think ‘hey maybe reverse psychology will work on traffic lights’. “Please be red,” we think as hard as we can, looking at the green lights in the distance. Then as if by magic, they do turn red. Huh, maybe we do have psychic powers after all.

Science is not scary

I don't really know what I want to do in life. "But you just finished a master's degree! In science!"  Well yes, yes I did. But the reason I did the degree in the first place was because I didn't know if I wanted to be in science. And to tell the honest truth, I still don't know if I do. But at the same time, I love science, I love doing it. But I don't know if it is what I want to be doing.

I think that science isn't something to be boxed up into a subject kept exclusively to school. Everything around us is science. Religion can co-exist with science. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G8Rw6LM4FTA

Public opinion is wrapped up around not understanding science, and being afraid of it because they don't understand the big words, just like they are afraid of technology:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fc1P-AEaEp8

To be fair, I honestly think that a part of the problem lies with the scientist themselves. Maybe its a 'I don't know why you don't understand something this simple' feeling that they give out when they speak, or maybe its the fact that most don't reach out at all. Something I learned being at the Roslin Institute is that some scientists do reach out to teach the public that they are not something to be afraid of. The problem I think is, that there is still a distinguishing line between the 'us' and 'them'.

I think everyone is a scientist really. That or a philosopher. 'Doers' or 'thinkers', so to speak. To illustrate this, I drew a flow chart:

What is it to be a scientist? All it takes is the thirst to know, and a will to understand. A newborn baby would be the worlds best scientist. It wants to know what this is and what that is. It looks around to see who is who, it learns how to memorize, it learns how to construct images. It learns language. It walks and plods on the floor. Amazing what a little baby can do if it puts its mind to it If you learn how to walk and talk than that itself is a feat, and achievement, and lo and behold, you have done science, since the moment you were born.  

Science needs to change. Sure, it’s not warm and fuzzy and all about cats hugging test tubes. But I think everyone should try to change it together.