0:00:00.960,0:00:02.396
Let me tell you a story.

0:00:02.968,0:00:06.715
It's my first year as a new[br]high school science teacher,

0:00:06.739,0:00:08.035
and I'm so eager.

0:00:08.527,0:00:12.535
I'm so excited, I'm pouring[br]myself into my lesson plans.

0:00:13.693,0:00:18.526
But I'm slowly coming[br]to this horrifying realization

0:00:18.550,0:00:22.081
that my students just might[br]not be learning anything.

0:00:23.605,0:00:25.312
This happens one day:

0:00:25.336,0:00:28.470
I'd just assigned my class[br]to read this textbook chapter

0:00:28.494,0:00:31.544
about my favorite subject[br]in all of biology:

0:00:32.235,0:00:34.917
viruses and how they attack.

0:00:35.727,0:00:38.055
And so I'm so excited[br]to discuss this with them,

0:00:38.079,0:00:41.426
and I come in and I say,[br]"Can somebody please explain

0:00:41.450,0:00:44.545
the main ideas and why this is so cool?"

0:00:45.812,0:00:46.987
There's silence.

0:00:49.352,0:00:52.312
Finally, my favorite student,[br]she looks me straight in the eye,

0:00:52.336,0:00:54.884
and she says, "The reading sucked."

0:00:55.257,0:00:56.709
(Laughter)

0:00:57.525,0:00:58.820
And then she clarified.

0:00:58.844,0:01:01.343
She said, "You know what,[br]I don't mean that it sucks.

0:01:01.367,0:01:03.405
I mean I didn't understand a word of it.

0:01:03.429,0:01:06.992
It's boring, who cares, and it sucks."

0:01:07.453,0:01:09.309
(Laughter)

0:01:09.333,0:01:14.199
These sympathetic smiles[br]spread all throughout the room now,

0:01:14.223,0:01:19.032
and I realize that all of my other[br]students are in the same boat,

0:01:19.056,0:01:22.944
that maybe they took notes or memorized[br]definitions from the textbook,

0:01:22.968,0:01:28.047
but not one of them[br]really understood the main ideas.

0:01:28.071,0:01:30.721
Not one of them can tell me[br]why this stuff is so cool,

0:01:30.745,0:01:32.078
why it's so important.

0:01:34.237,0:01:36.157
I'm totally clueless.

0:01:36.181,0:01:38.776
I have no idea what to do next.

0:01:39.451,0:01:42.363
So the only thing I can think of is say,

0:01:42.387,0:01:45.077
"Listen. Let me tell you a story.

0:01:46.306,0:01:52.331
The main characters in the story[br]are bacteria and viruses.

0:01:52.355,0:01:55.157
These guys are blown up[br]a couple million times.

0:01:55.831,0:01:58.973
The real bacteria and viruses are so small

0:01:58.997,0:02:01.251
we can't see them without a microscope,

0:02:01.275,0:02:03.385
and you guys might know[br]bacteria and viruses

0:02:03.409,0:02:04.973
because they both make us sick.

0:02:05.536,0:02:07.432
But what a lot of people don't know

0:02:07.456,0:02:11.218
is that viruses[br]can also make bacteria sick."

0:02:12.059,0:02:14.535
Now, the story[br]that I start telling my kids,

0:02:14.559,0:02:17.646
it starts out like a horror story.

0:02:18.887,0:02:21.880
Once upon a time,[br]there's this happy little bacterium.

0:02:22.490,0:02:23.957
Don't get too attached to him.

0:02:23.981,0:02:25.673
(Laughter)

0:02:25.697,0:02:28.363
Maybe he's floating around in your stomach

0:02:28.387,0:02:30.561
or in some spoiled food somewhere,

0:02:30.585,0:02:34.189
and all of a sudden,[br]he starts to not feel so good.

0:02:34.213,0:02:36.791
Maybe he ate something bad for lunch.

0:02:36.815,0:02:39.354
And then things get really horrible,

0:02:39.378,0:02:40.975
as his skin rips apart,

0:02:40.999,0:02:44.493
and he sees a virus[br]coming out from his insides.

0:02:45.505,0:02:49.051
And then it gets horrible[br]when he bursts open

0:02:49.075,0:02:52.798
and an army of viruses[br]floods out from his insides.

0:02:54.636,0:02:56.573
"Ouch" is right.

0:02:57.643,0:03:00.167
If you see this, and you're a bacterium,

0:03:00.191,0:03:03.005
this is like your worst nightmare.

0:03:03.413,0:03:05.769
But if you're a virus and you see this,

0:03:05.793,0:03:08.809
you cross those little legs[br]of yours and you think,

0:03:08.833,0:03:10.340
"We rock."

0:03:10.729,0:03:15.086
Because it took a lot of crafty work[br]to infect this bacterium.

0:03:16.170,0:03:17.416
Here's what had to happen.

0:03:17.987,0:03:21.169
A virus grabbed onto a bacterium

0:03:21.193,0:03:23.701
and it slipped its DNA into it.

0:03:24.803,0:03:28.160
The next thing[br]is that virus DNA made stuff

0:03:28.184,0:03:31.168
that chopped up the bacteria DNA.

0:03:32.445,0:03:34.881
And now that we've gotten rid[br]of the bacteria DNA,

0:03:34.905,0:03:38.710
the virus DNA takes control of the cell

0:03:38.734,0:03:42.210
and it tells it to start[br]making more viruses.

0:03:43.353,0:03:46.535
Because, you see, DNA is like a blueprint

0:03:46.559,0:03:48.908
that tells living things what to make.

0:03:50.163,0:03:53.543
So this is kind of like going[br]into a car factory

0:03:53.567,0:03:58.519
and replacing the blueprints[br]with blueprints for killer robots.

0:03:59.265,0:04:02.209
The workers still come[br]the next day, they do their job,

0:04:02.233,0:04:04.796
but they're following[br]different instructions.

0:04:05.524,0:04:09.277
So replacing the bacteria[br]DNA with virus DNA

0:04:09.301,0:04:14.123
turns the bacteria into a factory[br]for making viruses --

0:04:14.147,0:04:17.901
that is, until it's so filled[br]with viruses that it bursts.

0:04:18.896,0:04:22.276
But that's not the only way[br]that viruses infect bacteria.

0:04:22.825,0:04:26.283
Some are much more crafty.

0:04:26.307,0:04:27.457
(Laughter)

0:04:28.991,0:04:33.776
When a secret agent virus[br]infects a bacterium,

0:04:33.800,0:04:35.562
they do a little espionage.

0:04:36.235,0:04:40.336
Here, this cloaked, secret agent virus

0:04:40.360,0:04:43.123
is slipping his DNA[br]into the bacterial cell,

0:04:43.147,0:04:44.742
but here's the kicker:

0:04:44.766,0:04:48.639
It doesn't do anything[br]harmful -- not at first.

0:04:49.043,0:04:54.598
Instead, it silently slips[br]into the bacteria's own DNA,

0:04:54.622,0:04:59.320
and it just stays there[br]like a terrorist sleeper cell,

0:04:59.344,0:05:01.468
waiting for instructions.

0:05:02.214,0:05:07.912
And what's interesting about this is now,[br]whenever this bacteria has babies,

0:05:07.936,0:05:13.055
the babies also have[br]the virus DNA in them.

0:05:13.753,0:05:17.586
So now we have a whole[br]extended bacteria family,

0:05:17.610,0:05:20.411
filled with virus sleeper cells.

0:05:21.106,0:05:25.851
They're just happily living together[br]until a signal happens

0:05:25.875,0:05:30.319
and bam! -- all of the DNA pops out.

0:05:30.343,0:05:33.985
It takes control of these cells,[br]turns them into virus-making factories,

0:05:34.009,0:05:35.801
and they all burst,

0:05:35.825,0:05:38.523
a huge, extended bacteria family,

0:05:38.547,0:05:41.668
all dying with viruses[br]spilling out of their guts,

0:05:41.692,0:05:44.684
the viruses taking over the bacterium.

0:05:46.660,0:05:50.231
So now you understand[br]how viruses can attack cells.

0:05:50.755,0:05:52.359
There are two ways:

0:05:52.383,0:05:55.342
On the left is what we call the lytic way,

0:05:55.366,0:05:58.675
where the viruses go right in[br]and take over the cells.

0:05:59.278,0:06:02.349
On the [right] is the lysogenic way

0:06:02.373,0:06:04.761
that uses secret agent viruses.

0:06:05.944,0:06:08.198
So this stuff is not that hard, right?

0:06:08.222,0:06:10.221
And now all of you understand it.

0:06:10.245,0:06:12.236
But if you've graduated from high school,

0:06:12.260,0:06:15.046
I can almost guarantee[br]you've seen this information before.

0:06:15.546,0:06:20.553
But I bet it was presented in a way[br]that it didn't exactly stick in your mind.

0:06:22.119,0:06:25.587
So when my students[br]were first learning this,

0:06:25.611,0:06:27.349
why did they hate it so much?

0:06:27.952,0:06:30.086
Well, there were a couple of reasons.

0:06:30.110,0:06:32.261
First of all, I can guarantee you

0:06:32.285,0:06:35.667
you that their textbooks[br]didn't have secret agent viruses,

0:06:35.691,0:06:38.157
and they didn't have horror stories.

0:06:38.680,0:06:41.386
You know, in the communication of science,

0:06:41.410,0:06:45.434
there is this obsession with seriousness.

0:06:45.458,0:06:47.560
It kills me. I'm not kidding.

0:06:47.584,0:06:49.813
I used to work[br]for an educational publisher,

0:06:49.837,0:06:53.496
and as a writer, I was always told[br]never to use stories

0:06:53.520,0:06:55.408
or fun, engaging language,

0:06:55.432,0:07:00.400
because then my work might not be viewed[br]as "serious" and "scientific."

0:07:00.848,0:07:03.919
I mean, because God[br]forbid somebody have fun

0:07:03.943,0:07:05.711
when they're learning science.

0:07:05.735,0:07:10.573
So we have this field of science[br]that's all about slime

0:07:10.597,0:07:12.940
and color changes.

0:07:12.964,0:07:14.168
Check this out.

0:07:24.496,0:07:28.257
And then we have, of course,[br]as any good scientist has to have ...

0:07:29.115,0:07:30.472
explosions!

0:07:31.903,0:07:36.569
But if a textbook seems too much fun,

0:07:36.593,0:07:39.189
it's somehow unscientific.

0:07:40.511,0:07:43.314
Now another problem

0:07:43.338,0:07:49.170
was that the language in their textbook[br]was truly incomprehensible.

0:07:49.718,0:07:52.503
If we want to summarize that story[br]that I told you earlier,

0:07:52.527,0:07:53.813
we could start by saying,

0:07:53.837,0:07:55.979
"These viruses make copies of themselves

0:07:56.003,0:07:58.337
by slipping their DNA into a bacterium."

0:07:59.003,0:08:02.344
The way this showed up in the textbook,[br]it looked like this:

0:08:02.368,0:08:05.582
"Bacteriophage replication is initiated

0:08:05.606,0:08:10.248
through the introduction of viral[br]nucleic acid into a bacterium."

0:08:10.965,0:08:15.036
That's great, perfect for 13-year-olds.

0:08:16.052,0:08:17.233
But here's the thing:

0:08:17.257,0:08:19.807
There are plenty of people[br]in science education

0:08:19.831,0:08:21.987
who would look[br]at this and say there's no way

0:08:22.011,0:08:24.428
that we could ever give that to students,

0:08:24.452,0:08:28.904
because it contains some language[br]that isn't completely accurate.

0:08:29.666,0:08:32.499
For example, I told you[br]that viruses have DNA.

0:08:32.523,0:08:35.126
Well, a very tiny fraction of them don't.

0:08:35.150,0:08:37.094
They have something called RNA instead.

0:08:37.465,0:08:40.767
So a professional science writer[br]would say, "That has to go.

0:08:40.791,0:08:43.381
We have to change it to something[br]much more technical."

0:08:43.405,0:08:46.133
And after a team[br]of professional science editors

0:08:46.157,0:08:49.966
went over this really simple explanation,

0:08:49.990,0:08:54.394
they'd find fault[br]with almost every word I've used,

0:08:54.418,0:08:57.323
and they'd have to change anything[br]that wasn't serious enough,

0:08:57.347,0:08:59.062
and they'd have to change everything

0:08:59.086,0:09:01.568
that wasn't 100 percent perfect.

0:09:02.544,0:09:04.408
Then it would be accurate,

0:09:04.432,0:09:08.805
but it would be completely[br]impossible to understand.

0:09:09.305,0:09:11.003
This is horrifying.

0:09:11.553,0:09:16.422
You know, I keep talking[br]about this idea of telling a story,

0:09:16.446,0:09:21.017
and it's like science communication[br]has taken on this idea

0:09:21.041,0:09:24.096
of what I call the tyranny of precision,

0:09:24.120,0:09:26.251
where you can't just tell a story.

0:09:26.275,0:09:31.893
It's like science has become[br]that horrible storyteller that we all know

0:09:31.917,0:09:34.512
who gives us all the details[br]nobody cares about,

0:09:34.536,0:09:38.361
where you're like, "Oh, I met[br]my friend for lunch the other day,

0:09:38.385,0:09:40.178
and she was wearing these ugly jeans.

0:09:40.202,0:09:43.202
I mean, they weren't really jeans,[br]they were more like leggings,

0:09:43.226,0:09:45.860
but I guess they're actually[br]kind of more like jeggings,

0:09:45.884,0:09:50.197
and you're just like,[br]"Oh my God. What is the point?"

0:09:50.776,0:09:54.736
Or even worse,[br]science education is becoming

0:09:54.760,0:09:57.760
like that guy who always says, "Actually."

0:09:58.735,0:10:00.591
You want to be like,

0:10:00.615,0:10:03.726
"Oh, dude, we had to get up[br]in the middle of the night

0:10:03.750,0:10:06.432
and drive a hundred miles[br]in total darkness."

0:10:06.456,0:10:11.114
And that guy's like,[br]"Actually, it was 87.3 miles."

0:10:11.138,0:10:15.503
And you're like, "Actually, shut up![br]I'm just trying to tell a story."

0:10:18.471,0:10:23.280
Because good storytelling[br]is all about emotional connection.

0:10:24.010,0:10:26.537
We have to convince our audience

0:10:26.561,0:10:28.822
that what we're talking about matters.

0:10:29.545,0:10:34.776
But just as important is knowing[br]which details we should leave out

0:10:34.800,0:10:37.430
so that the main point still comes across.

0:10:38.279,0:10:41.262
I'm reminded of what the architect[br]Mies van der Rohe said,

0:10:41.286,0:10:44.651
and I paraphrase,[br]when he said that sometimes,

0:10:44.675,0:10:47.603
you have to lie[br]in order to tell the truth.

0:10:48.238,0:10:52.753
I think this sentiment is particularly[br]relevant to science education.

0:10:54.952,0:11:01.718
Now, finally, I am often so disappointed

0:11:01.742,0:11:06.289
when people think that I'm advocating[br]a dumbing down of science.

0:11:06.948,0:11:08.098
That's not true at all.

0:11:08.646,0:11:11.423
I'm currently a Ph.D. student at MIT,

0:11:11.447,0:11:16.429
and I absolutely understand[br]the importance of detailed,

0:11:16.453,0:11:21.322
specific scientific[br]communication between experts,

0:11:21.346,0:11:24.774
but not when we're trying[br]to teach 13-year-olds.

0:11:25.856,0:11:30.928
If a young learner[br]thinks that all viruses have DNA,

0:11:30.952,0:11:34.982
that's not going to ruin[br]their chances of success in science.

0:11:36.466,0:11:40.021
But if a young learner[br]can't understand anything in science

0:11:40.045,0:11:43.980
and learns to hate it because it[br]all sounds like this,

0:11:44.004,0:11:46.973
that will ruin their chances of success.

0:11:48.765,0:11:50.071
This needs to stop ...

0:11:51.118,0:11:54.912
and I wish that the change could come[br]from the institutions at the top

0:11:54.936,0:11:56.698
that are perpetuating these problems,

0:11:56.722,0:12:00.142
and I beg them,[br]I beseech them to just stop it.

0:12:01.528,0:12:03.033
But I think that's unlikely.

0:12:03.509,0:12:07.048
So we are so lucky that we have resources

0:12:07.072,0:12:10.206
like the Internet, where we can[br]circumvent these institutions

0:12:10.230,0:12:12.286
from the bottom up.

0:12:13.593,0:12:16.481
There's a growing number[br]of online resources

0:12:16.505,0:12:19.807
that are dedicated[br]to just explaining science

0:12:19.831,0:12:22.497
in simple, understandable ways.

0:12:22.934,0:12:25.290
I dream of a Wikipedia-like website

0:12:25.314,0:12:29.013
that would explain[br]any scientific concept you can think of

0:12:29.037,0:12:32.648
in simple language[br]any middle schooler can understand.

0:12:33.521,0:12:36.965
And I myself spend most of my free time

0:12:36.989,0:12:40.092
making these science videos[br]that I put on YouTube.

0:12:40.613,0:12:42.823
I explain chemical equilibrium

0:12:42.847,0:12:46.327
using analogies to awkward[br]middle school dances,

0:12:46.351,0:12:48.057
and I talk about fuel cells

0:12:48.081,0:12:51.184
with stories about boys and girls[br]at a summer camp.

0:12:52.246,0:12:55.650
The feedback that I get[br]is sometimes misspelled

0:12:55.674,0:12:57.817
and it's often written in LOLcats,

0:12:57.841,0:12:59.055
(Laughter)

0:12:59.079,0:13:04.999
but nonetheless,[br]it's so appreciative, so thankful

0:13:05.023,0:13:11.245
that I know this is the right way[br]we should be communicating science.

0:13:12.073,0:13:15.120
There's still so much work[br]left to be done, though,

0:13:15.144,0:13:18.382
and if you're involved[br]with science in any way,

0:13:18.406,0:13:20.675
I urge you to join me.

0:13:21.096,0:13:26.456
Pick up a camera, start[br]to write a blog, whatever,

0:13:26.480,0:13:29.908
but leave out the seriousness,[br]leave out the jargon.

0:13:30.329,0:13:33.700
Make me laugh. Make me care.

0:13:33.724,0:13:37.279
Leave out those annoying details[br]that nobody cares about

0:13:37.303,0:13:39.652
and just get to the point.

0:13:41.049,0:13:42.232
How should you start?

0:13:42.914,0:13:46.626
Why don't you say,[br]"Listen, let me tell you a story."

0:13:48.063,0:13:49.214
Thank you.