I took a Science class at the junior college...

I recently took a botany class at the local junior college. I’ve been interested in science since my youth, but after high school, where I had physics and chemistry, I didn’t take any lab science in college. Taking the botany class was eye-opening and refreshing. I didn’t realize what my biggest takeaway was until this morning, though, when watching a Professor Dave Explains video - “Science isn’t Dogma, You’re Just Stupid” - where he debunks another science denial video. He points out that students in science classes are not indoctrinated with lecture materials; they actually have to replicate the experiments themselves, and this is the basis of their learning. If you’ve never had the joy of doing a scientific experiment and documenting the results yourself to prove an empirical fact, then I highly recommend it. This one small joyous experience can actually help you snuggle up to reality.

Our lives are a series of experiments when you consider how children discover “hot” and “ouch” - learning the hard way how the world works. Professor Dave got me thinking of abotany class experiment where we showed that increasing a plant’s exposure to light increased its photosynthesis and, as a result, its oxygen production. We set up this respiration experiment with an Elodea plant in one test tube and a control test tube beside it. When our team saw the bubbles of oxygen percolating into the respirometer of the Elodea tube, but not the control tube, I felt grounded and empowered.

This inspired a great reverence for all the work and thought humanity has put into creating the vast knowledge we take for granted every second of our lives. Isn’t it fun to have the aha moments about the stuff humans have spent so much time developing…like science? It’s not perfect, it’s not easy, but perhaps like democracy, it’s the best we’ve got so far.

So there I was at 9 am, sitting with all this, listening to Professor Dave argue the case against science denialism, and I thought, “Why am I watching this?” Dave is a bit edgy and intense- he’s clearly upset about the video he’s debunking. And then, when it came to the part about what science students actually do in class and how they learn science, it hit me - to paraphrase Professor Dave - they do f^*king science!

So, everybody, do an experiment. Have a question or a mystery in your life? Come up with your hypothesis - what you believe is going on - and test it. We do this all the time, day after day, without even thinking about it. Our lives are full of decisions about unknown futures. We learn from our mistakes. This behavior is the root of the scientific method upon which science is built. But if you want to take it a step further, take a botany class. You will thank me.

“Pinch out air- No Bubble!”