Science was my first love.
Ever since I was a small child, science had me completely captivated. Children are naturally curious, of course, but in my case, I had this insatiable desire to devour anything I could lay my hands on that was about science. I guess I simply wanted to know how the world worked, and this was the way my questions were going to be answered.
So, every Saturday morning, my dad used to take me off to the library to hunt for another little pile of books full of intriguing facts and all sorts of fun experiments to try out. And that was how I whiled away much of my time.
As I grew up and continued my studies, my love for science deepened - especially for physics, because I saw it as a subject so intimately connected with our everyday life experiences. On the other hand, I just could not stand biology simply because of the way it was presented to us at school as a bunch of facts that had to be memorized and diagrams to be drawn flawlessly. You see, memory was never one of my strong points and, back then as a clumsy teenager, I could not draw smooth steady line to save my life. The rote-learning of biology could never compare in my mind with the elegant logic that pervaded the other sciences.
Now, the picture is wholly different, and with an understanding of Evolution, biology fits in perfectly as fascinating science with a real and extraordinary power to explain not just how, but the deeper question of why things are the way they are. Luckily form me, I gave biology a second chance and realised that logic and deduction apply to it as much as anywhere else.
I was hoping to get off to a more interesting start to this blog than just talking about myself, but I’m keeping this post because there is a lesson to be learned here. As I look back, I realise how easy it is to misunderstand science - how easy it is to be influenced by parents, teachers and people around us to not see the beauty and value that science brings to our world.
My main aim with this blog is to address this. In a world where science has taken pretty much a back seat in classrooms and even among people in general, I want to show that it is more relevant than ever. Science is not only for geeks. It can be made accessible to all. And it is immense fun!
I plan to share with you the awe and wonder with which I look at the world. I want to show you that if you love life, you just have to love science for the incredible way it openes a window into who we are and where we come from, and for the power it gives us humans to advance as a species and to satisfy that burning quest for knowledge that sets us apart from all other life.
