Why You Should Study Science

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00:00:15.00 It always surprises me that more of us aren't scientists.
00:00:18.01 All children are scientists and somehow that gets lost.
00:00:21.16 I think it gets lost because people forget about the excitement and the joy
00:00:26.03 of discovery, which is what children's job is from the moment they're born
00:00:29.15 until they decide not to be scientists anymore.
00:00:32.17 I think those of us who remain scientists
00:00:34.24 stay scientists because we wish to retain that joy of discovery
00:00:38.25 and that play that really we're allowed to do.
00:00:41.16 But as a scientist, we get to do it in a more formalized sense
00:00:46.00 so that we're asking questions in a very deliberate way,
00:00:49.05 rather than exploring the world in a free-form way,
00:00:52.00 which is what you do when you're a child and you're trying to decide what the world is about
00:00:56.23 and how you fit into it.
00:00:58.06 As scientists, you get to explore the world, find out what it's about,
00:01:02.28 so that you can advance things that are happening in the world,
00:01:05.22 in the community, in the society.
00:01:08.22 Science is such an important part of our society today
00:01:12.26 that it's particularly distressing that so many students
00:01:17.12 leave science even though they all have an interest in it when they come into college
00:01:21.19 or into grade school.
00:01:22.27 So, I'd like today to tell you a little bit about the things I've heard from students
00:01:27.07 that they worry about and which may have kept many of them from going into science,
00:01:33.06 as I follow them through their time.
00:01:35.24 First of all, people say, but isn't science hard?
00:01:39.27 I mean, it's really hard.
00:01:40.28 And to that, I would answer, it is hard, it is very hard,
00:01:44.14 but so is anything worth doing.
00:01:46.00 And in fact, doing something that you love and have fun at
00:01:49.04 is a lot less hard then working at a job that you hate
00:01:52.12 and that's boring and that doesn't pay you much money anyway.
00:01:55.13 Through science, you can explore many kinds of worlds
00:01:59.16 and you can go in many directions.
00:02:01.20 The other kind of thing I've heard from students is there aren't any jobs for scientists,
00:02:05.22 is what I've heard. And I say, well, that's defining the science degree in a rather narrow way.
00:02:11.15 It is true that if you want to teach and work in a very large university,
00:02:16.03 those jobs are very competitive. But there's a whole world out there
00:02:19.15 where a science background stands you in good stead.
00:02:22.28 What you learn as a scientist is how to ask questions,
00:02:25.22 how to think rigorously about information you get from a variety of sources,
00:02:29.27 and how to put them together in a way that explains what you may have observed.
00:02:34.00 This comes in handy in a lot of places.
00:02:36.11 There are a lot of theoretical physicists who are on Wall Street now,
00:02:39.23 so it's even possible that you can get paid a lot of money,
00:02:43.22 but I would suggest that you do a little bit of ethical thinking as well
00:02:46.26 as you do your scientific training.
00:02:49.17 Science doesn't limit you to a particular subject.
00:02:53.15 When I first got interested in science at the age of 9,
00:02:57.03 about the only thing I knew was that I didn't want to be a doctor
00:03:00.28 and I had this idea that science took place in a large, white, solitary room.
00:03:05.13 I come from a very large family.
00:03:06.28 I have 5 younger siblings and over 101 first cousins.
00:03:12.01 We just had a family reunion
00:03:14.02 and there were 52 people who were the immediate descendants of my mother and father
00:03:18.15 and 150 or so who came to the picnic afterwards
00:03:22.09 who were related in one way or another.
00:03:24.21 And so part of my motivation for going into science
00:03:27.20 was because I thought it was a place where I could be alone.
00:03:30.15 That's totally wrong.
00:03:32.15 You actually spend a lot of time working with other people
00:03:35.08 and it's a very interactive enterprise in society.
00:03:40.02 People have asked, well, there are so many people that are so much smarter than I am,
00:03:46.01 why would I want to go into science?
00:03:48.16 And I would say that is true in almost any field that you would go into.
00:03:52.08 There are very few people in this world who cannot find someone
00:03:55.08 who is better, smarter, better prepared about one thing or another.
00:04:00.22 The best scientists are not always the smartest.
00:04:03.20 Often, they're the most persistent, the most careful, the most thoughtful.
00:04:07.29 And those are traits which you can cultivate as you decide to go into a life in science.
00:04:12.21 As I said a little bit before, you can go in many directions with science.
00:04:18.14 It's not a degree that limits you.
00:04:20.06 You can go from an undergraduate degree in science to the head of a company.
00:04:24.03 You can go from a graduate degree in science to a head of a company.
00:04:28.24 There are many routes to many very different and interesting things.
00:04:31.28 As a scientist, I've been in the courtroom, as an expert witness,
00:04:36.06 I've been in a company building a very large machine to sort cells,
00:04:41.05 and I am not an engineer, I am a cell biologist.
00:04:43.22 I am now thinking of myself as an immunologist because I'm learning about the immune system.
00:04:49.01 Science could take you in very many different directions,
00:04:52.02 it can take you into fields where you will have an advantage
00:04:55.23 because you know how to assess information in a critical way.
00:05:00.01 That's the key thing about science.
00:05:02.04 The other thing that I would want you to remember
00:05:04.17 is that it is a lot fun.
00:05:06.22 It is true that you will work hard,
00:05:09.13 anything you do, if you're going to do it well, you're going to work hard.
00:05:12.23 It is true that it's competitive, that is also true in any other field.
00:05:17.08 It is true that it has a very wide pay scale,
00:05:20.18 but I want to tell you, people who are scientists are unemployed at a much, much, much lower rate
00:05:26.00 than people who are not.
00:05:27.03 It can take you all over the world
00:05:29.13 and it can certainly take you into vast realms of fun
00:05:33.16 and discovery and excitement.
00:05:36.16 So, I would urge you to consider science
00:05:38.15 and not consider the things that might keep you out
00:05:41.03 because those are things which apply to everything in life.
00:05:43.25 It's not because it's science.
00:05:45.15 Thank you.

This Talk

Speaker: Lydia Villa-Komaroff

Audience:

General Public
Educators of H. School / Intro Undergrad
Student
Educators of Adv. Undergrad / Grad
Researcher
Educators

Recorded: December 2012

Talk Overview

In this talk about why you should study science, Villa-Komaroff encourages students to follow their natural childhood curiosity and study science at a university. She recognizes that completing a degree in science may present challenges, but argues that it prepares you well for many jobs and can open the door to a career that is fun, exciting and full of discovery.

Speaker Bio

Lydia Villa-Komaroff

As a post-doctoral fellow, Lydia Villa-Komaroff was a key member of the team that showed for the first time that bacteria could be induced to produce insulin. She spent the next twenty years researching growth factors and development before moving to science administration. Currently, she is Chief Scientific Officer at CytonomeST. Amongst her many accomplishments,… Continue Reading