What springs to mind when I say the word science? If you think of test tubes and crazy male professors wearing lab coats, we want to change that, because science is SO much more than what we often think.
Science is for everyone, regardless of age, gender, race or background, because science is the foundation of everything around us - including yourself!
As I finished my undergraduate degree, for the first time in my life I didn’t have my head in a book, spending my time frantically trying to memorise diagrams, facts and figures for my exams. My learning was no longer restricted to what was needed to pass that school mock exam or my university finals and I had my eyes up. I spent time travelling and working in non-science jobs. I found myself curious at everything around me, constantly asking myself ‘why does that happen?’, ‘how does that work?’, ‘that’s cool!’.
Science is all around us. It’s in our homes - when we boil the kettle (I know my kettle has been overused this last year), bake our favourite cake, tend to our house plants (plant moms raise your hands) and do our home workouts (if that’s your thing). Science is outside in nature; the modes of transport we take, from our cars to our own two feet; the medicines we take and even the foods in our local supermarket (I don’t know about you but the weekly shop is a very exciting outing these days for me).
It’s important that we have an understanding of the science around us, so that everybody can engage in global conversation around scientific issues that impact us. I’m not referring only to the covid-19 pandemic we are living through, though that is something very much at the forefront of all our lives right now. Infectious diseases, climate change, antibiotic resistance, food security, disparities in education are just a handful of the big issues affecting us today, which we have all heard of no doubt. Let's get curious about our world around us and explore some of these issues- we may all learn something new.
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