Here comes science

I've argued (not very originally) that science education isn't enough. Not only do we need to do a good job of educating students, we also need to find ways to share the wonder and beauty of science. We need to let everyone in on our dirty little secret -- science is fun and exciting.

Chris Mooney and Sheril Kirshenbaum argue in Unscientific America that one important way of communicating that message is through popular culture, e.g., movies and music. Don't worry, I'm not planning to release a music video, but I was delighted to read this morning in Nature that the next album from They Might Be Giants¹ is Here Comes Science. (That's a screenshot from the title video at the left.) Here are a couple of the questions and answers from the Q&A in Nature.

From the first song, 'Science is Real', this album seems to be making a statement. Why is that important?

It seems that science has suffered in this country recently, so it was political in a way. There has been some scepticism about science in the past 25 years that has been unfortunate. There's a decadent quality to that -- that the culture has lost its way.

Your lyrics talk about evolution being real and how stories about angels and unicorns are just that, stories. Did you worry that this might alienate some listeners?

John Flansburgh took the bull by the horns by writing that song and addressing that situation, which is that religion cannot take the place of science. It's not something you can tiptoe around. It's important that everybody gets what the discussion is about. If we're talking about the history of Earth, we can't rely on religious tradition to tell us all the information. He says it in the song: as beautiful as the stories are, they don't tell us everything we need to know. It's an old complaint on the part of scientists, but it bears repeating.