Science exploration
The dictionary definition of science is an intellectual and practical activity to better understand the natural and physical world. I too spent a good part of my youth treading this path to gain in depth knowledge of this complex world. After completing my PhD 15 years ago, when I look back at those days and years in the lab, my memory of valuable lessons is not so much about the daily experiments that I did, but the trial and tribulations that I experienced which molded me into the person that I have become today. The reason why I wanted to quote my own experience is because popular culture engages us into thinking that science is all about experiments and mainstream entertainment hardly portrays scientists as the heroes who save the world.
From my perspective, fundamentals of science when grasped correctly can indeed help to bring a lot of value to one’s own life. I would like to sum up science using daily vocabulary as a combination of curiosity, interest, research, planning, knowing the variables, methodical approach to problem solving, observing the outcome and drawing unbiased conclusions.
Life in general
These were the steps that I knowingly used during my research years to gain in-depth scientific knowledge in Genetics. Today, when I am so far removed from lab and research, I still see how these behaviors have become imprinted into my personality. I routinely use my scientific principles in my daily life and one of the best examples of this is when it comes to baking.
Baking
I treat baking as an experiment viewing the recipe as a protocol and oven as the equipment. Variables include all the ingredients that go into baking the cake. With many repetitions I have come up with an approach which saves me time as well as energy for the clean up. Many times when I encounter problems such as an undercooked cake, I immediately turn to researching this problem to know why this happens and figured out a way to resolve this. All this results in a cake which in conclusion is delicious.
I have used science and baking to try and explain how what we learn in schools and colleges as different subjects can be transferable knowledge to our lives. Most of us are already doing it unconsciously, I hope reading this article will make us realize that we are all informal scientists, mathematicians or historians of our own lives.
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