The Words We Gave to Science
Thoughts and a poem built from your words
On instagram I asked my 48K+ followers the following question: “When you hear the word science what words and phrases come to mind?” I got so so many replies (some still coming in) and I turned the main themes and words into this poem.
My heart is heavy due to the things happening in the U.S. right now. But things like this ground me and remind me of the reason I am working so hard to make a difference (you see my work most publicly in science spaces, but I promise I care about other issues too).
I sat and wrote this haiku this afternoon because it is what I have been telling everyone today. We cry, we rest, and we keep on to build a better future for all kids.
Today, my heart breaks.
Tomorrow, I work again.
To build a new world.
So today, I have no other words for you except the words from all of us below. Seeing YOUR words about what science is and means to you meant a lot to me. I hope you find just a bit of solace in them, as I did.
And if you didn’t drop your words/phrase into my question box on Instagram feel free to add your word or phrase in a comment. I need to see them.
She Blinded Me With Science A Poem Built from All Your Words Science is Bill Nye and beakers, white coats, lab notes and test tubes. It’s exact measurements, gut checks, and Magic School Bus rides through planets, plasma, and periodic tables. Science is Bunsen burners and Erlenmeyer flasks, complicated charts and colorful compounds, observation and repetition, discovery and doubt. Science is curious: always searching, and always asking. A problem-solving instinct ingrained in who we are because survival demands curiosity. Science is both: helpful and hard, truthful and tangled, hopeful and currently defunded, broad-ranging as an umbrella, and sometimes used as a double-edged sword. Science is: evidence and empathy, reproducibility and rigor, schooling and stability, awe and anxiety. Information that grounds us, and questions that provoke us. Science saves lives. It is the future, ours to protect. It is progress, ours to pursue. It evolves, learns, and adapts. It needs compassion as much as precision. It’s not perfect, but it’s real. Science is a matriarch: birthing, training, guiding through countless hours of thought and testing. Sometimes censored, often misunderstood. Science is: vital, crucial, essential, and hope. Science doesn’t claim to know everything, it just always strives to know more. Because science is what happens when humans ask, “What is this about?” and never stop asking.
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