Hats off to Brian Greene and Tracy Day for organizing the supremely successful World Science Festival. Greene, professor of physics at Columbia University and author of The Elegant Universe and Fabric of the Cosmos, wrote an op-ed in Sunday's New York Times saying we have failed children because science is boring. We've stressed the details--the mind numbing drills, solving equations and learning all of the parts of the cell. These things are all important, but we are missing the bigger picture. The fundamental reason that science is so profound is because we search for answers to questions like where did we come from and why is the universe the way it is. When you pursue science with a sense of wonder and curiosity instead of drudgery and drill, children will want to be scientists. In essence, we have taught science backwards. Inspire and captivate first, then present the details.
But instead of merely bemoaning that we do a lousy job of inspiring children and adults to take a greater interest in science, he has actually done something about it. He and Tracy Day put together this hugely successful festival with experts from a wide array of fields, including a hefty amount of Nobel Laureates. Over 40 events with 22,000 attendees were completely sold out. The science street fair for children in Washington Square Park was attended by over 100,000 people. Not only that, if you missed the festival entirely, you will be able to watch nearly everything on the website within the next few days.
In one of the events, Greene said that while the ideas of quantum mechanics are not widely absorbed by the public, our culture has freely adopted its language. We all use the technology made possible by physics--televisions, cell phones and iPods, but most of us don't have a clue why these things work. We live in a world shaped by science. Solutions to the biggest problems we face--climate change, fossil fuel dependence, health care, aging infrastructures and scarce resources--all require science. Greene said that science is the greatest of all adventure stories. We need the most adventuresome of souls to conquer these problems.--Sherry Mazzocchi
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