Science is cool and kids should know it!

I don't often meet 8 year olds and when I met one a couple of days ago, after a long time, it was a thought provoking experience.

Eight is not a big number but it is not the age when you can coochie-coo your way around or walk away from questions with your reputation intact. Neither is it those dreaded teens when although rebellion tinges the conversation, you can treat the child like an adult, or a young adult as they say. For me it was a tricky experience that made me realize how much some things have changed and how some others have stayed the same. 

This was the second time I meeting V - a friend's son. The first time was after his long flight from India and I could understand that he was not going to be talkative. As we adults kept talking and he was lying there with these big headsets watching animations. He was the usual 8 year old who loved his gadgets and video games and was shy/wary of strangers. Upon not getting any attention from him for almost an hour, I poked him a little on my way out. I tried to get his attention by prattling-on about about two headed turtles, sharks and conjoined twins, about pangrams, dinosaurs and pilots. All in less than ten minutes I think. I just wanted to find something that he was interested in. Finally, with all this being thrown at him - I had his attention. But then he declared that science is boring as his parents (both scientists) are mostly doing "not-so-cool" stuff on the computer and in their lab.

I have long been the scientist in the house - the one who asks why, the one who breaks the rules, the one who explores - worlds both real and fictional. My brother, on the other hand is a pilot - how cool is that! I know! And, I am used to that same reaction from everyone. With my brother present in the room, conversations would always be about flying, landing speeds, visibility, gadgetry and rest of the cool stuff - much to his annoyance as well. Kids are almost in awe when he is around, also because he is usually towering over everyone at 6ft3".

Being a scientist myself I was a little saddened by the proclamation of an eight year old that science is boring. But then, as we ended up speaking for the next two hours about books, calligraphy, Harry Potter, Halloween, Dinosaurs and magic tricks - I realized that he doesn't dislike science, he just doesn't care for the slower, accurate and more grown-up version of it. But this also made me realize that there is strong need for science advocates - people who can make kids realize about the unknowns of the world.

Science is cool and kids should know it!

Why should only astronauts, race car drivers, doctors and pilots be considered cool? Why are scientists depicted in popular media like these quirky, almost crazy, wild-eyed, wild-haired geeky people?  That is a huge amount of prejudice and scientists as a community just accept it. But it is not true (at all). Scientists are cool! They are blasting electrons and protons looking for smaller particles; they are climbing down caves looking for bacteria;  they are hunting snakes and finding new cures in the Amazon; they are recording dreams and memories, engineering thoughts in mice; they are making life in a dish; they are making hearts, lungs and livers for treatment; they are understanding the universe - one piece at a time. 

Science is cool and as are scientists! And kids should know this. And we as a society need people to enthuse children. We need to fascinate them and to enthrall them with the world around us.

Not just to tell them quirky facts about rhino-horns, hair and antlers, about twin-headed animals and dinosaurs, but also about the unknowns! About how we don't know how the dinosaurs died or how the universe began or about how we remember, dream, sleep or think? Science for kids has to be more than a summation of facts and experiments or about exams and answers. Books that give these descriptive details about what is known must also mention what is unknown so that they can think.

Yes, what is known is an ever-present constant while what is unknown is changing everyday - but that is precisely why writing a book or education is no mean task. 

Science is a way of looking at world. A way of wonder. A way of thinking with a questioning mind. We need the next generation of people to know the world for what it is and to then change it - to engineer it for the better. We need kids to come up with new solutions without forgetting the old!   Knowledge and information are better received when they told with fun facts, quotations, action and drama - but this is not to strip away the facts and the questions. This is to enhance them and to improve retention. 

When as a seven-or-eight year old, I first read of Marie Curie working with her father and then eventually discovering radioactivity; or when I heard of the small-pox vaccination and its beginnings with the milkmaids; or even about the discovery of Penicillin - I was in awe. I wanted to change the world like them.

I wanted to make discoveries. I wanted to understand the world - a little better each day. And the quest continues even today - despite being a little tarnished by the harsher realities of life in science. I was and still am passionate about knowledge, about having more questions than answers and to go on that hunt - each day, every day. I try and carefully stow away in a box every unanswered question that I find - waiting for an answer to come. I don't remember all the questions. Neither do I remember all the answers. But I know one, when I find one and I try and put the two together - happy at the resolution!

That wonder for the world around me has kept me sane and unjaded through the years of graduate school and the drugdery of post-doctoral work. It is this wonder that I am scared of losing if I move on to do something different. It is this wonder that keeps me sane and eager to learn. And I want all the kids around me to have that.