conveying excitement: the radio voice.

Something I think about frequently is science education for the public. Is science anyone's hobby? "Oh, I am a science-lover/collector," the way civil war buffs, modern poetry lovers, Baroque music fans are?

I'll admit that the Lawrence M. Krauss books are better at putting me to sleep than teaching me about the fifth dimension, but why is science so sterile? So unsexy? Clinical trials, neuroscience, and cancer research are fascinating, but don't forget about the basic sciences.

An obvious sad fact is that there are limited resources in this world. Orders and priorities have to be set, and often times human-relevant topics place at the top. Many research proposals bring their experiments into a human-relevant application context (human pathogens, energy source, natural disasters) even if far-fetched and unlikely.

My co-worker noted that it's critical to focus on what is important rather than what is useful or interesting. I didn't think there was much of a distinction until he mentioned that there is an over-representation of paleontology in many science journals, simply because it is considered cool.

But if you apply this logic to the other disciplines, we do lots of "useless" things. The arts. Poetry. History. Science is simply not that interesting to those who are not studying it in the first place. A fundamental change in perception of science and scientists may be the answer here.

Red = Wolbachia in fruit fly Picture

And I found a solution of sorts in class Tuesday. The two guys who presented our group's research blew me out of the water with their enthusiasm. It was like listening to talk show radio. If you ever listen to Marketplace Morning Report, guests often talk about economics and finance like there is nothing quite so fascinating in this world. Tune this in for a non-English speaker and she may think he's talking about his latest sports car or something.

I am not sure if those two truly found the stuff fascinating or were simply kick-ass presenters, but... do people give standing ovations to class presentations? Our findings on Wolbachia transformed into something fascinating: they can make insects more pesticide-resistant!!! When they die, the adult worm cells apoptose too!!!