WEBVTT 00:00:00.779 --> 00:00:02.635 Let me tell you a story. NOTE Paragraph 00:00:02.635 --> 00:00:06.739 It's my first year as a new high school science teacher, 00:00:06.739 --> 00:00:08.059 and I'm so eager. 00:00:08.059 --> 00:00:12.259 I'm so excited, I'm pouring myself into my lesson plans. 00:00:12.259 --> 00:00:17.411 But I'm slowly coming to this horrifying realization 00:00:17.411 --> 00:00:22.443 that my students just might not be learning anything. NOTE Paragraph 00:00:22.443 --> 00:00:25.147 This happens one day: 00:00:25.147 --> 00:00:28.361 I'd just assigned my class to read this textbook chapter 00:00:28.361 --> 00:00:31.819 about my favorite subject in all of biology: 00:00:31.819 --> 00:00:35.291 viruses and how they attack. 00:00:35.291 --> 00:00:37.677 And so I'm so excited to discuss this with them, 00:00:37.677 --> 00:00:41.141 and I come in and I say, "Can somebody please explain 00:00:41.141 --> 00:00:45.150 the main ideas and why this is so cool?" NOTE Paragraph 00:00:45.150 --> 00:00:47.781 There's silence. 00:00:47.781 --> 00:00:52.054 Finally, my favorite student, she looks me straight in the eye, 00:00:52.054 --> 00:00:55.597 and she says, "The reading sucked." 00:00:55.597 --> 00:00:59.125 And then she clarified. She said, "You know what, 00:00:59.125 --> 00:01:03.054 I don't mean that it sucks. It means that I didn't understand a word of it. 00:01:03.054 --> 00:01:07.429 It's boring. Um, who cares, and it sucks." NOTE Paragraph 00:01:07.429 --> 00:01:11.473 These sympathetic smiles 00:01:11.473 --> 00:01:13.878 spread all throughout the room now, 00:01:13.878 --> 00:01:18.517 and I realize that all of my other students are in the same boat, 00:01:18.517 --> 00:01:22.429 that maybe they took notes or they memorized definitions from the textbook, 00:01:22.429 --> 00:01:27.832 but not one of them really understood the main ideas. 00:01:27.832 --> 00:01:30.565 Not one of them can tell me why this stuff is so cool, 00:01:30.565 --> 00:01:32.923 why it's so important. NOTE Paragraph 00:01:32.923 --> 00:01:35.885 I'm totally clueless. 00:01:35.885 --> 00:01:39.149 I have no idea what to do next. 00:01:39.149 --> 00:01:41.613 So the only thing I can think of is say, 00:01:41.613 --> 00:01:45.805 "Listen. Let me tell you a story. 00:01:45.805 --> 00:01:52.013 The main characters in the story are bacteria and viruses. 00:01:52.013 --> 00:01:55.181 These guys are blown up a couple million times. 00:01:55.181 --> 00:01:58.238 The real bacteria and viruses are so small 00:01:58.238 --> 00:02:01.070 we can't see them without a microscope, 00:02:01.070 --> 00:02:02.774 and you guys might know bacteria and viruses 00:02:02.774 --> 00:02:05.365 because they both make us sick. 00:02:05.365 --> 00:02:08.885 But what a lot of people don't know is that viruses 00:02:08.885 --> 00:02:11.765 can also make bacteria sick." NOTE Paragraph 00:02:11.765 --> 00:02:13.917 Now, the story that I start telling my kids, 00:02:13.917 --> 00:02:18.541 it starts out like a horror story. 00:02:18.541 --> 00:02:21.904 Once upon a time there's this happy little bacterium. 00:02:21.904 --> 00:02:24.189 Don't get too attached to him. 00:02:24.189 --> 00:02:28.325 Maybe he's floating around in your stomach 00:02:28.325 --> 00:02:30.133 or in some spoiled food somewhere, 00:02:30.133 --> 00:02:34.213 and all of a sudden he starts to not feel so good. 00:02:34.213 --> 00:02:36.270 Maybe he ate something bad for lunch, 00:02:36.270 --> 00:02:39.117 and then things get really horrible, 00:02:39.117 --> 00:02:41.989 as his skin rips apart, and he sees a virus 00:02:41.989 --> 00:02:44.125 coming out from his insides. 00:02:44.125 --> 00:02:47.309 And then it gets horrible 00:02:47.309 --> 00:02:50.333 when he bursts open and an army of viruses 00:02:50.333 --> 00:02:53.414 floods out from his insides. 00:02:53.414 --> 00:02:56.597 If -- Ouch is right! -- 00:02:56.597 --> 00:02:59.814 If you see this, and you're a bacterium, 00:02:59.814 --> 00:03:03.029 this is like your worst nightmare. 00:03:03.029 --> 00:03:05.646 But if you're a virus and you see this, 00:03:05.646 --> 00:03:08.037 you cross those little legs of yours and you think, 00:03:08.037 --> 00:03:10.597 "We rock." 00:03:10.597 --> 00:03:15.381 Because it took a lot of crafty work to infect this bacterium. 00:03:15.381 --> 00:03:17.694 Here's what had to happen. 00:03:17.694 --> 00:03:20.813 A virus grabbed onto a bacterium 00:03:20.813 --> 00:03:24.510 and it slipped its DNA into it. 00:03:24.510 --> 00:03:27.541 The next thing is, that virus DNA made stuff 00:03:27.541 --> 00:03:31.685 that chopped up the bacteria DNA. 00:03:31.685 --> 00:03:34.573 And now that we've gotten rid of the bacteria DNA, 00:03:34.573 --> 00:03:38.780 the virus DNA takes control of the cell 00:03:38.780 --> 00:03:42.773 and it tells it to start making more viruses. 00:03:42.773 --> 00:03:46.485 Because, you see, DNA is like a blueprint 00:03:46.485 --> 00:03:49.709 that tells living things what to make. 00:03:49.709 --> 00:03:52.941 So this is kind of like going into a car factory 00:03:52.941 --> 00:03:58.997 and replacing the blueprints with blueprints for killer robots. 00:03:58.997 --> 00:04:01.973 The workers still come the next day, they do their job, 00:04:01.973 --> 00:04:05.198 but they're following different instructions. 00:04:05.198 --> 00:04:08.493 So replacing the bacteria DNA with virus DNA 00:04:08.493 --> 00:04:14.021 turns the bacteria into a factory for making viruses -- 00:04:14.021 --> 00:04:17.925 that is, until it's so filled with viruses that it bursts. 00:04:17.925 --> 00:04:22.825 But that's not the only way that viruses infect bacteria. 00:04:22.825 --> 00:04:28.991 Some are much more crafty. 00:04:28.991 --> 00:04:32.837 When a secret agent virus infects a bacterium, 00:04:32.837 --> 00:04:35.837 they do a little espionage. 00:04:35.837 --> 00:04:43.109 Here, this cloaked, secret agent virus is slipping his DNA into the bacterial cell, 00:04:43.109 --> 00:04:48.842 but here's the kicker: It doesn't do anything harmful -- not at first. 00:04:48.842 --> 00:04:54.242 Instead, it silently slips into the bacteria's own DNA, 00:04:54.242 --> 00:04:58.874 and it just stays there like a terrorist sleeper cell, 00:04:58.874 --> 00:05:01.899 waiting for instructions. 00:05:01.899 --> 00:05:07.770 And what's interesting about this is now whenever this bacteria has babies, 00:05:07.770 --> 00:05:13.194 the babies also have the virus DNA in them. 00:05:13.194 --> 00:05:16.961 So now we have a whole extended bacteria family, 00:05:16.961 --> 00:05:21.106 filled with virus sleeper cells. 00:05:21.106 --> 00:05:25.745 They're just happily living together until a signal happens 00:05:25.745 --> 00:05:29.777 and -- BAM! -- all of the DNA pops out. 00:05:29.777 --> 00:05:33.849 It takes control of these cells, turns them into virus-making factories, 00:05:33.849 --> 00:05:35.825 and they all burst, 00:05:35.825 --> 00:05:38.201 a huge, extended bacteria family, 00:05:38.201 --> 00:05:41.584 all dying with viruses spilling out of their guts, 00:05:41.584 --> 00:05:46.574 the viruses taking over the bacterium. 00:05:46.574 --> 00:05:50.553 So now you understand how viruses can attack cells. 00:05:50.553 --> 00:05:54.921 There are two ways: On the left is what we call the lytic way, 00:05:54.921 --> 00:05:59.191 where the viruses go right in and take over the cells. 00:05:59.191 --> 00:06:01.953 On the [right] is the lysogenic way 00:06:01.953 --> 00:06:05.290 that uses secret agent viruses. NOTE Paragraph 00:06:05.290 --> 00:06:08.057 So this stuff is not that hard, right? 00:06:08.057 --> 00:06:10.073 And now all of you understand it. 00:06:10.073 --> 00:06:11.841 But if you've graduated from high school, 00:06:11.841 --> 00:06:15.249 I can almost guarantee you've seen this information before. 00:06:15.249 --> 00:06:18.033 But I bet it was presented in a way 00:06:18.033 --> 00:06:22.119 that it didn't exactly stick in your mind. NOTE Paragraph 00:06:22.119 --> 00:06:24.809 So when my students were first learning this, 00:06:24.809 --> 00:06:27.729 why did they hate it so much? 00:06:27.729 --> 00:06:29.716 Well, there were a couple of reasons. NOTE Paragraph 00:06:29.716 --> 00:06:33.061 First of all, I can guarantee you that their textbooks 00:06:33.061 --> 00:06:38.303 didn't have secret agent viruses, and they didn't have horror stories. 00:06:38.303 --> 00:06:41.140 You know, in the communication of science 00:06:41.140 --> 00:06:45.394 there is this obsession with seriousness. 00:06:45.394 --> 00:06:47.284 It kills me. I'm not kidding. 00:06:47.284 --> 00:06:49.596 I used to work for an educational publisher, 00:06:49.596 --> 00:06:53.341 and as a writer, I was always told never to use stories 00:06:53.341 --> 00:06:55.180 or fun, engaging language, 00:06:55.180 --> 00:06:57.420 because then my work might not be viewed 00:06:57.420 --> 00:07:00.708 as "serious" and "scientific." 00:07:00.708 --> 00:07:03.484 Right? I mean, because God forbid somebody have fun 00:07:03.484 --> 00:07:05.676 when they're learning science. 00:07:05.676 --> 00:07:10.379 So we have this field of science that's all about slime, 00:07:10.379 --> 00:07:14.407 and color changes. Check this out. 00:07:23.700 --> 00:07:28.652 And then we have, of course, as any good scientist has to have, 00:07:28.652 --> 00:07:32.094 explosions! 00:07:32.094 --> 00:07:36.244 But if a textbook seems too much fun, 00:07:36.244 --> 00:07:39.996 it's somehow unscientific. NOTE Paragraph 00:07:39.996 --> 00:07:43.852 Now another problem was that 00:07:43.852 --> 00:07:49.492 the language in their textbook was truly incomprehensible. 00:07:49.492 --> 00:07:52.181 If we want to summarize that story that I told you earlier, 00:07:52.181 --> 00:07:53.500 we could start by saying something like, 00:07:53.500 --> 00:07:55.878 "These viruses make copies of themselves 00:07:55.878 --> 00:07:58.620 by slipping their DNA into a bacterium." 00:07:58.620 --> 00:08:02.061 The way this showed up in the textbook, it looked like this: 00:08:02.061 --> 00:08:05.356 "Bacteriophage replication is initiated 00:08:05.356 --> 00:08:08.423 through the introduction of viral nucleic acid 00:08:08.423 --> 00:08:10.965 into a bacterium." 00:08:10.965 --> 00:08:15.660 That's great, perfect for 13-year-olds. NOTE Paragraph 00:08:15.660 --> 00:08:18.300 But here's the thing. There are plenty of people 00:08:18.300 --> 00:08:21.507 in science education who would look at this and say there's no way 00:08:21.507 --> 00:08:24.452 that we could ever give that to students, 00:08:24.452 --> 00:08:29.372 because it contains some language that isn't completely accurate. 00:08:29.372 --> 00:08:31.828 For example, I told you that viruses have DNA. 00:08:31.828 --> 00:08:34.957 Well, a very tiny fraction of them don't. 00:08:34.957 --> 00:08:37.372 They have something called RNA instead. 00:08:37.372 --> 00:08:39.724 So a professional science writer would circle that 00:08:39.724 --> 00:08:40.870 and say, "That has to go. 00:08:40.870 --> 00:08:43.020 We have to change it to something much more technical." 00:08:43.020 --> 00:08:45.586 And after a team of professional science editors 00:08:45.586 --> 00:08:49.252 went over this really simple explanation, 00:08:49.252 --> 00:08:54.196 they'd find fault with almost every word I've used, 00:08:54.196 --> 00:08:56.564 and they'd have to change anything that wasn't serious enough, 00:08:56.564 --> 00:08:58.332 and they'd have to change everything 00:08:58.332 --> 00:09:02.108 that wasn't 100 percent perfect. 00:09:02.108 --> 00:09:03.924 Then it would be accurate, 00:09:03.924 --> 00:09:09.060 but it would be completely impossible to understand. 00:09:09.060 --> 00:09:11.252 This is horrifying. NOTE Paragraph 00:09:11.252 --> 00:09:13.244 You know, I keep talking about this idea 00:09:13.244 --> 00:09:15.788 of telling a story, 00:09:15.788 --> 00:09:20.915 and it's like science communication has taken on this idea 00:09:20.915 --> 00:09:23.892 of what I call the tyranny of precision, 00:09:23.892 --> 00:09:25.812 where you can't just tell a story. 00:09:25.812 --> 00:09:30.760 It's like science has become that horrible storyteller 00:09:30.760 --> 00:09:34.180 that we all know, who gives us all the details nobody cares about, 00:09:34.180 --> 00:09:38.124 where you're like, "Oh, I met my friend for lunch the other day, 00:09:38.124 --> 00:09:40.060 and she was wearing these ugly jeans. 00:09:40.060 --> 00:09:42.684 I mean, they weren't really jeans, they were more kind of, like, leggings, 00:09:42.684 --> 00:09:45.204 but, like, I guess they're actually kind of more like jeggings, 00:09:45.204 --> 00:09:47.988 like, but I think — " and you're just like, "Oh my God. 00:09:47.988 --> 00:09:50.582 What is the point?" 00:09:50.582 --> 00:09:54.618 Or even worse, science education is becoming 00:09:54.618 --> 00:09:58.124 like that guy who always says, "Actually." 00:09:58.124 --> 00:10:01.204 Right? You want to be like, "Oh, dude, 00:10:01.204 --> 00:10:02.604 we had to get up in the middle of the night 00:10:02.604 --> 00:10:06.220 and drive a hundred miles in total darkness." 00:10:06.220 --> 00:10:10.808 And that guy's like, "Actually, it was 87.3 miles." 00:10:10.808 --> 00:10:13.196 And you're like, "Actually, shut up! 00:10:13.196 --> 00:10:17.427 I'm just trying to tell a story." NOTE Paragraph 00:10:17.427 --> 00:10:23.724 Because good storytelling is all about emotional connection. 00:10:23.724 --> 00:10:26.124 We have to convince our audience 00:10:26.124 --> 00:10:29.244 that what we're talking about matters. 00:10:29.244 --> 00:10:31.908 But just as important is knowing 00:10:31.908 --> 00:10:34.396 which details we should leave out 00:10:34.396 --> 00:10:37.916 so that the main point still comes across. 00:10:37.916 --> 00:10:41.148 I'm reminded of what the architect Mies van der Rohe said, 00:10:41.148 --> 00:10:44.132 and I paraphrase, when he said that sometimes 00:10:44.132 --> 00:10:48.041 you have to lie in order to tell the truth. 00:10:48.041 --> 00:10:50.684 I think this sentiment is particularly relevant 00:10:50.684 --> 00:10:54.058 to science education. NOTE Paragraph 00:10:54.058 --> 00:10:56.780 Now, finally, 00:10:56.780 --> 00:11:01.156 I am often so disappointed 00:11:01.156 --> 00:11:04.012 when people think that I'm advocating 00:11:04.012 --> 00:11:06.652 a dumbing down of science. 00:11:06.652 --> 00:11:08.428 That's not true at all. 00:11:08.428 --> 00:11:11.409 I'm currently a Ph.D. student at MIT, 00:11:11.409 --> 00:11:16.398 and I absolutely understand the importance of detailed, 00:11:16.398 --> 00:11:21.037 specific scientific communication between experts, 00:11:21.037 --> 00:11:25.132 but not when we're trying to teach 13-year-olds. 00:11:25.132 --> 00:11:30.428 If a young learner thinks that all viruses have DNA, 00:11:30.428 --> 00:11:35.548 that's not going to ruin their chances of success in science. 00:11:35.548 --> 00:11:39.911 But if a young learner can't understand anything in science 00:11:39.911 --> 00:11:44.004 and learns to hate it because it all sounds like this, 00:11:44.004 --> 00:11:47.556 that will ruin their chances of success. NOTE Paragraph 00:11:47.556 --> 00:11:50.593 This needs to stop, 00:11:50.593 --> 00:11:53.903 and I wish that the change could come from the institutions 00:11:53.903 --> 00:11:56.671 at the top that are perpetuating these problems, 00:11:56.671 --> 00:12:00.637 and I beg them, I beseech them to just stop it. 00:12:00.637 --> 00:12:03.156 But I think that's unlikely. 00:12:03.156 --> 00:12:06.700 So we are so lucky that we have resources 00:12:06.700 --> 00:12:09.820 like the Internet, where we can circumvent these institutions 00:12:09.820 --> 00:12:12.974 from the bottom up. 00:12:12.974 --> 00:12:16.292 There's a growing number of online resources 00:12:16.292 --> 00:12:19.420 that are dedicated to just explaining science 00:12:19.420 --> 00:12:22.716 in simple, understandable ways. 00:12:22.716 --> 00:12:25.772 I dream of a Wikipedia-like website that would explain 00:12:25.772 --> 00:12:28.524 any scientific concept you can think of 00:12:28.524 --> 00:12:33.204 in simple language any middle schooler can understand. 00:12:33.204 --> 00:12:36.476 And I myself spend most of my free time 00:12:36.476 --> 00:12:40.637 making these science videos that I put on YouTube. 00:12:40.637 --> 00:12:43.604 I explain chemical equilibrium using analogies 00:12:43.604 --> 00:12:46.092 to awkward middle school dances, 00:12:46.092 --> 00:12:48.476 and I talk about fuel cells with stories 00:12:48.476 --> 00:12:51.852 about boys and girls at a summer camp. 00:12:51.852 --> 00:12:55.612 The feedback that I get is sometimes misspelled 00:12:55.612 --> 00:12:57.828 and it's often written in LOLcats, 00:12:57.828 --> 00:13:00.324 but nonetheless 00:13:00.324 --> 00:13:04.763 it's so appreciative, so thankful 00:13:04.763 --> 00:13:08.317 that I know this is the right way 00:13:08.317 --> 00:13:11.884 we should be communicating science. NOTE Paragraph 00:13:11.884 --> 00:13:14.820 There's still so much work left to be done, though, 00:13:14.820 --> 00:13:18.028 and if you're involved with science in any way 00:13:18.028 --> 00:13:20.892 I urge you to join me. 00:13:20.892 --> 00:13:25.948 Pick up a camera, start to write a blog, whatever, 00:13:25.948 --> 00:13:30.108 but leave out the seriousness, leave out the jargon. 00:13:30.108 --> 00:13:33.724 Make me laugh. Make me care. 00:13:33.724 --> 00:13:36.876 Leave out those annoying details that nobody cares about 00:13:36.876 --> 00:13:40.772 and just get to the point. 00:13:40.772 --> 00:13:42.914 How should you start? 00:13:42.914 --> 00:13:47.188 Why don't you say, "Listen, let me tell you a story"? NOTE Paragraph 00:13:47.188 --> 00:13:49.238 Thank you. NOTE Paragraph 00:13:49.238 --> 00:13:50.119 (Applause)