Today’s episode features reporting on the March for Science by Spark Science correspondent Natalie Moore. We were on location at a satellite march in Bellingham, WA.
While Dr. Barber DeGraaff was busy with march organizing, Natalie asked event speakers and participants why they were compelled to come out in full support for SCIENCE.
Listen to former astronaut Captain Wendy Lawrence speak on inconvenient truths and her hope for the future. We include Dr. Melissa Rice, Mars Rover Scientist, mesmerize the crowd with a passionate and rallying speech on a defense of the scientific method. Stay for the interviews of community members and physics students at the march.
Please enjoy the show.
Special Thanks to Natalie Moore for the reporting, editing and producing of this episode.
Dr. Regina Barber DeGraaff: Welcome to Spark Science. This episode was recorded on site at Bellingham’s March for Science on Earth Day, 2017. Our correspondent Natalie Moore interviewed the following speakers: former astronaut Wendy Lawrence, Dr. Melissa Rice, and a few March participants. Speech audio was compiled by Western Washington University Video Services. Enjoy the show.
[♪ “Chemical Calisthenics” by Blackalicious ♪]
♪ Neutron, proton, mass defect, lyrical oxidation, yo irrelevant
♪ Mass spectrograph, pure electron volt, atomic energy erupting
♪ As I get all open on betatron, gamma rays thermo cracking
♪ Cyclotron and any and every mic
♪ You’re on trans iridium, if you’re always uranium
♪ Molecules, spontaneous combustion, pow
♪ Law of de-fi-nite pro-por-tion, gain-ing weight
♪ I’m every element around
Captain Wendy Lawrence: I want to make this short and sweet because you all already get a lot of points for braving the wind and the weather, and I think it’s time for us to start marching.
[Cheering.]
And I really want to thank the people who have the “there’s no planet B” signs. I really can identify that because I have had an amazing privilege. I am one of fewer than 600 people who’ve had an opportunity to leave this planet; to go into space and look out the window of their spacecraft to look back at this incredible place that we call home. And when you get to see Earth from the way that I’ve seen it ‒ yes, it forever changes the way you think about things. When we are over the part of the Earth where it’s daytime, where the sun is shining, not that you could tell right now‒
[Laughter.]
‒that powerful sunlight overwhelms the stars and all we see is a part of our planet that seems to be completely surrounded and almost engulfed by this intensely deep, black void of space, and it makes our Earth look incredibly small and incredibly fragile. And you come back with this sense that we must do everything possible to protect our home, to protect the only place that we have the ability to live on right now.
[Applause.]
And to do that, we can’t ignore the world around us. We can’t ignore truths, truths that I think Al Gore absolutely correctly named when he called them “inconvenient truths.” And that is the world of science ‒ looking at the world around us, asking questions and seeking to understand what is happening. And we do have to be this dispassionate about the results. We do just have to look at the findings, whether we like them or not.
I also come from a world in which you pay the ultimate price if you ignore those inconvenient truths. I was on the first ride after the loss of the Columbia orbiter and the STS-107 crew. I saw first-hand what happened when NASA engineers chose not to recognize the signals they were being sent from the loss of foam from the external tank. So I know the very painful price that at times ends up being paid when we choose not to deal with those inconvenient truths.
And so that’s how we need to move forward ‒ is being open-minded, to listening to all sides, not choosing to ignore something because it’s hard and inconvenient and it’s just not easy and comfortable for us to recognize it and deal with it.
That’s what I encourage each and every one of you to do as you finish the March today ‒ to listen to all sides, to remain open-minded until the information is gathered, and then to assess it and to also encourage our decision-makers to go about their business in the very same way, to put aside whatever personal beliefs they have, to do the hard work of listening to all sides, of gathering the information, and then coming together collectively and collaboratively to figure out the best path forward.
So with that, I think we March. Janelle, back to you. I think you have final words. Thank you again for coming and braving the weather!
[Applause.]
Natalie Moore: This is Natalie Moore with Spark Science. You just heard Captain Wendy Lawrence speak at the March for Science in Bellingham. Later, I got the opportunity to talk with her during the March.
Why are you here? Why do you love science?
Capt. Lawrence: Okay, again, full disclosure is I am an engineer by education.
Natalie: Okay, that’s science.
Capt. Lawrence: It is! [Inaudible] is based on science! Engineers are paired with scientists and the scientists figure things out and the engineers take those principles and build things and utilize them. Because our understanding of the world around us just based on science, scientific method and scientific investigations and people with a sense of wonder and curiosity asking questions about, “Why does this happen? Why is the sky blue? Why does the wind blow? Why do we get rain?” and kind of figure out an answer. So pretty much everything we know of the world around us and things that we do day-in and day-out are based on our understanding of science.
Well, you know, we went from the Big Bang, and maybe not the Big Bang anymore. As we learn more, as technology improves and allows us to gather more data, we then go back with an open mind and reassess what we thought previously. That’s the process.
Natalie: Yeah.
Capt. Lawrence: To me it’s an orderly process and it makes sense to me, like the approach of let’s ask the question in an open-minded way and then see where the information leads us. And that’s why I said that in my talk. We have to enter into all of this with that open mind and gather the information and sort through it and let that lead us to what the best approach will be. For me, it creates a sense of order in the world around us when you take that approach. And I also think if we keep that open mind, it allows us to actually talk with one another. Right now we need to be opening these doors and figuring out how we can have those conversations together.
Natalie: Yeah, that’s true.
Capt. Lawrence: I think people tend to be afraid of the unknown. I think they don’t like chaos because it creates a sense of instability. But if you use the scientific method then you can reestablish that order. It can be a logical progression from one step as you step through all that.
Natalie: It can kind of help alleviate that fear.
Capt. Lawrence: Yeah. We all tend to be afraid of the unknown, but to me science is the process of unveiling that unknown, revealing what’s behind it. And so it’s interesting; we’re afraid of the unknown, but you also tend to be afraid of science. But science is the process by which you go make that unknown known.
Natalie: Well, it also makes more unknowns.
Capt. Lawrence: And then I can make more‒
Natalie: So that’s probably also‒
Capt. Lawrence: Yes. Sometimes it creates more unknowns when you realize, “I fully don’t understand that.”
Natalie: “Oh, there’s not enough mass for the universe to be flat.” More unknowns.
Capt. Lawrence: Yes, but it’s all a part of the process.
Natalie: Yeah. It should fuel that fire, though.
Capt. Lawrence: There are people I think in this country who the sources of information that they listen to feed off that fear, unfortunately, fuel it, I think. Nobody wants to live in fear all the time. We need to sit down with all sides in this country and have a conversation because ‒ and then I go back to my unique perspective. We are all citizens of planet Earth and together we will keep this planet healthy. Divided, our planet will fall apart. So we all need to sit down together and communicate and work together to preserve the only place that we know how to live on right now. That is our duty and our responsibility.
Natalie: Yeah. There is no Planet B, right?
Capt. Lawrence: Yeah, there is no Planet B.
Natalie: So is there a really lofty scientific goal that you hope to see happen in your lifetime?
Capt. Lawrence: Yeah! Humans on Mars. And I would love to ‒ it won’t happen ‒ I would love to go to Mars one day. I’m going to be too old. But yeah, humans on Mars. For now I’ll settle with boot prints rather than rover tracks on the surface of Mars.
Natalie: Yeah, that’s what I’d like to see, too. It may not happen in 2020 mission, but.
Capt. Lawrence: Well, we’ll get another rover, and we’ll keep learning more and eventually we’ll get humans there. But that’s what I want to see in my lifetime.
Natalie: That’s amazing. Thank you so much for being here.
Capt. Lawrence: Oh, you’re welcome. It was a great day. I’m glad the sun came out.
Natalie: It was a good day! Yeah, me too. Well, thank you. This was Captain Wendy Lawrence, again.
[♪ “Wondaland” by Janelle Monae ♪]
♪ Early late at night
♪ I wander off into a land
♪ You can go, but you mustn’t tell a soul
♪ There’s a world inside
♪ Where dreamers meet each other
Dr. Melissa Rice: The scientific method is the most important and wonderful thing that humankind has ever invented.
[Applause.]
I am so grateful to live in a universe that can be known through predictions, through observations, and tests. We should all be ecstatic that the natural world around us can be known at all. I am so amazed that we can know that the sun will rise again tomorrow and not only that, but the sun tomorrow will rise two minutes earlier than it did today. And we know why.
And when the total solar eclipse happens in North America on August 21st of this year, we will look at the skies as they begin to darken, when the moon passes in front of the sun, and we will say, “Yes! I knew that would happen!” We will not cower in fear of a darkening universe that is unpredictable and unknowable. We have science! We can know our world.
I am so lucky to have a career in science. I drive robots on the planet Mars. I study photographs for NASA’s Mars rovers and I can see individual sand grains on the surface of a planet 100 million miles away. That is amazing and we owe that to science. We can see in these photographs spectacular vistas of towering rock formations that have been carved by winds blowing for billions of years on the landscapes of Mars. Mars is a spectacular and beautiful and striking place.
But let me get something straight. Mars ain’t no place to raise your kids. [Laughter.] Mars is no place to live. Mars is no substitute for Earth. The Earth has no substitute. Mars is a harsh, desolate world. It is no Planet B. There is no Planet B. If there is anything that we take away from the age of space exploration, it has to be how precious this blue marble that we inhabit is. There is nothing else like it in the solar system. There may be nothing else like it in the universe.
Now, Mars is a desolate, harsh world today, but our science is revealing that Mars might have been warmer and a wetter place four billion years ago, and it may have been possible for the most primitive forms of life to have evolved on the planet Mars. That is what our Rovers are searching for.
That is the question that propels my research. Could there have been life on Mars and are we alone in the universe? That’s a very profound question. And I’ll tell you what. I really want to find evidence for ancient life on Mars. It would be the biggest discovery in the history of history! It would tell us that we are not alone in the universe and if life can exist on our nearest neighbor planet, then maybe life is prevalent throughout the cosmos.
But it doesn’t matter what I want to find. Science doesn’t care. The truth is what it is and if our Rovers find evidence that there was never any possibility for life on Mars, that there could never have arisen life on that planet, then I will look at the evidence and I will accept what it tells me, and I will be grateful that we can know at all because we cannot pick and choose our science.
[Applause.]
We do not get to discard science that we don’t like!
[Applause.]
But science is under attack by those who want to pick and choose the science they like to push an ideology forward to make money and we cannot let that happen. There are forces at work to undermine the public’s trust and respect for the scientific method. And I watched these forces at work in my career, and for the most part, I’ve done nothing. I’ve said, “I’m a scientist. I’ve got all this science to do. I don’t have time to get involved in activism. Let somebody else do that.”
And also, like many of my scientist colleagues, I’m not confrontational. Despite what it looks like up here, I’m really an introvert.
[Laughter.]
And like many of my scientist friends, I was drawn to the scientific life because I wanted to pursue pure reason and the pursuit of knowledge and truth and ignore all those messy human things like politics and confrontations and policy.
But we do not have the luxury anymore of hiding in our labs with our heads down pursuing truth. We cannot sit idly by while there are forces at work to undermine science while evidence is being undermined by illogical fallacies and by political agendas on all sides. We need to come together and stand up and raise our voices for the greatest thing that humankind has ever come across: the scientific method. And that is why we march today!
[Applause.]
But today is just the beginning. We march today and we have to keep marching tomorrow and we have to keep marching next year and for the rest of our lives because science is under attack. And we need to commit right here before we even take our first steps on today’s march, we need to commit to do something to carry the march forward tomorrow.
So ask yourself here, right now, what am I going to do to carry the march forward next week? Are you going to call your representative? Are you going to volunteer for an organization that supports science or a library or a museum? If you have more free money than free time, will you donate to a research group? Will you donate to an organization, a nonprofit that advocates for science?
Or will you just talk with your family, with your community, about how the process of science works and why it’s important? Maybe show them a result, a picture from Mars, perhaps, that shows something wonderful and beautiful in the universe and explain to them how we know it and how we should be so glad that we can know it?
Let’s carry this march forward. This is not about today. This is about the future. So please, enjoy this day ‒ another day on the beautiful planet Earth, the best planet we have in this solar system. Thank you!
[Applause.]
Natalie: You just heard Dr. Melissa Rice speak at the March for Science in Bellingham. After the March, I got the opportunity to ask her a couple questions.
Your speech was really awesome.
Dr. Rice: Thank you.
Natalie: Yeah, it was ‒ I mean, I think most people thought it was the most exciting speech, too.
Dr. Rice: You gotta rile them up!
Natalie: Yeah, you do! So have you been involved with any other marches like that before? Any other political activities like that?
Dr. Rice: I have marched, but I’ve never been an organizer or speaker at a march before. So getting up and speaking in front of a crowd like that in this kind of event was a new thing for me.
Natalie: And the crowd, I’m sure it was new for them because they were all scientists.
Dr. Rice: Right! Well this is totally unprecedented in all of history. Nobody has ever marched for science as a kind of abstract idea. If you think about it, it’s a strange thing to march for. Usually you march for something very concrete. Like in the Women’s March after the inauguration, we were marching for women’s rights, and it’s a very concrete thing to march for rights.
But to march for science, you’re marching for this idea about a way to understand the natural world, which is much different than marching in favor of a specific policy or marching in opposition to something that’s happened politically. We were marching in support of a way of knowledge. And as far as I know, there’s nothing like that that’s happened in history before.
Natalie: So what has happened recently, then, that made you think that this was necessary?
Dr. Rice: I think that this was a long time coming. And I think that scientists have been becoming more active supporters of science in the past few decades as science has become more politicized as whether you agree with the abundance of data showing that humans are impacting global climate and climate change is real. Whether you accept that data or not, it’s falling more and more down partisan lines.
And I think that that intermixing of the political with the scientific is really motivating a lot of scientists to say, “Hey, we should not be using data‒a denial of data‒to push partisan agendas.” Science is not something we can be entitled to an opinion about because facts are facts. The facts say what they say. And what we can have opinions about is how to respond to what those facts say, what kind of political actions we want to take. But we can’t have opinions about whether they are facts or not.
The denial of scientific evidence is something that does affect both sides of the political spectrum, as well, and there are plenty of miscommunications and misinformation and poor understanding of science and the scientific method on the far left as on the far right, as well. There are some topics such as the anti-vax movement or anti-GMO activism that is notoriously on the left as opposed to on the right, so this really isn’t a partisan issue. The March for Science was about accepting data and using the scientific method regardless of which political side you’re on.
Certainly, the rise of alternative facts has been a part of that and I think if I were to put my finger on any one specific thing, it would be the reversal of some environmental regulations that have been put in place to try and slow down these adverse effects of climate change that are happening and the reversal of policies that are environmentally conscious and are responsive to scientific data about climate change. The reversal of those policies and the hits to the Environmental Protection Agency ‒ I think those might be things we can point to as what’s led to this tipping point.
[♪ “Wondaland” by Janelle Monae ♪]
♪ Dance in the trees
♪ Paint mysteries
♪ The magnificent droid plays there
♪ Your magic mind
♪ Makes love to mine
♪ I think I’m in love, angel
♪ Take me back to Wondaland
♪ I gotta get back to Wondaland
♪ Take me back to Wondaland
♪ She thinks she left her underpants
♪ Take me back to Wondaland
♪ I gotta get back to Wondaland
Natalie: And what about you personally? So you work with the Mars Science Laboratory with the Curiosity Rover. Has there been any cuts or any changes in policy to your project personally that is going to adversely affect you for the next four years or however long?
Dr. Rice: I’m in an incredibly fortunate situation of being in one of the areas of science that is not partisan. Both sides of our political spectrum are generally in favor of space and space exploration and space science, which is great for me and my colleagues. We have a much more stable vision of funding for our future. Definitely complicated, but as space scientists, we’re not being affected by partisanship in science funding as much as, say, Earth science or the National Institute of Health, for example.
But I think that when there are attacks on science and scientific reasoning and when there are dismissals of data and evidence, then that is bad news for all scientists because we really can’t pick and choose which data we’re going to take seriously. And as someone who studies Mars, a lot of my research on Mars is going into understanding global climate change on Mars that happened several billion years ago. And our understanding of the evolution of the planet Mars is an understanding of a planet that’s undergone very severe, catastrophic global climate change.
And we have not been met with any pushback about how climate change on Mars is a hoax. All parties involved seem to involved that, yes, the data shows that Mars was once a warmer, wetter place, and climate has changed, and today it’s a cold, dry, barren wasteland. That data is generally accepted by all parties involved.
So it seems strange and illogical and dangerous that climate change on Mars, climate change on Venus can be understood and accepted as fact, but the preponderance of data showing the start of a global climate change on our own planet Earth is being dismissed as a hoax. So we don’t get to accept some science and dismiss others.
Natalie: Yeah, based on opinion. There are a lot of those signs that I think came from that Neil deGrasse Tyson video. And he said, “Science is true whether you believe it or not,” I think is what those signs were saying.
Dr. Rice: Yeah, that’s right. That’s right. You’re not entitled to an opinion about facts.
Natalie: Yeah.
Dr. Rice: Facts are facts. Data is data. It says what it says regardless of what you believe. I think that the climate change issues have really motivated a lot of scientists and the general public to come out and stand up in support of science because that is one area where, if we ignore the data and we do not respond responsively to what the data is telling us about what human activity is doing to this planet, if we don’t change that, we could get to this point of no return where we negatively influence our planet irreversibly, where there’s no turning back. We can’t undo the damage we’ve done, where we have changed the face of this planet.
Other issues in science, general or philosophical denials of science and dismissal of scientists. In human history, there have been dark ages that humanity has gone into and come out of and science has recovered. Science, in the end, will prevail. We may be entering a dark age of denial of science, but we as a species will come back to it. But the thing that’s irreversible is what could be done to our planet.
Natalie: And us, too, right?
Dr. Rice: And us!
Natalie: Because the planet is this huge force. It’s gone through climate changes before, more extreme than what we can even fathom, but we are here now and it might really negatively impact the human race.
Dr. Rice: Right! Arguments are brought up all the time showing the climate record for the history of the Earth and that the Earth has gone through warmings and coolings and temperature swings. And what’s different about what’s going on right now is the rate of change. That is unprecedented. But most importantly, as you say, planet’s never undergone these kind of changes with human beings on it before and we have a lot at stake.
We are so precious and precarious here on this little planet. At any point there could be another asteroid on a collision course with Earth that impacts us, kicks up global dust, darkens the skies. Kind of a natural nuclear winter, is what might happen with a giant impact event, and those have happened throughout the Earth’s history. It’s what destroyed the dinosaurs, was the Chicxulub Impact 65 million years ago. And so we have these events that we’re subject to as a rock orbiting a star out in space.
And so it seems like with all of these unpredictable kind of natural disasters that could befall us on Earth, shouldn’t we be doing everything we can to keep the planet in as best shape as possible in the meantime? Shouldn’t we be not adding to the troubles? Not adding another variable to the chaos that might befall our species?
Natalie: So it seems like you studying Mars has really given you a lot of insight about Earth.
Dr. Rice: Yeah! That was always a reason why I was drawn to other planets, is to get a different perspective, be able to turn back from Mars and look at Earth and see it with a new set of eyes.
Natalie: Cool. I did ask people two questions. I was asking people why they loved science. How did they get into science in the first place?
Dr. Rice: Yeah! There are lots of reasons why I love science and lots of things I could point to that kind of push me down this science path. But one of them was when I took an astronomy elective in high school and was learning about the life cycle of stars for the first time and learned in that high school astronomy class that the sun has a lifetime and it turned on four and a half billion years ago and it has about another four and a half billion years to go until it starts to die. And when it does, it will swell up into this red giant stage, and the sun will be larger than the orbit of the Earth.
So the sun will grow and grow and swallow up the Earth. And then everything will be gone! There’s no preventing that. There’s no reversing that. And there will be some time in the future where the Earth just doesn’t exist and when humanity does not exist, unless we make it to another star system, but that’s a topic for another day. So that realization that the Earth and the solar system and everything has a finite lifetime was pretty profound. And then I thought about, “Well, what is there after that? What’s going to be in the universe?” And the answer was science.
Natalie: Yeah.
Dr. Rice: The laws of physics, we’re pretty confident, will continue as we know them, as we’ve studied them, after the death of our own solar system. Thinking about how science and these laws of nature that we can know and understand are going to outlive us all ‒ that made me think, well, maybe science is what’s worth studying, what’s worth knowing. Maybe it’s the only thing that’s greater than us all.
Natalie: So the other question that I was asking: what is the greatest scientific advancement that you hope to see within your lifetime?
Dr. Rice: Jeez! Well that’s a tough one. I’d really like to see an advancement in technology that would be driven by science that would allow us to travel to places faster in the solar system. I think the big barrier in getting humans to Mars right now is that it’s a seven to nine-month one-way trip and the thing that really needs to happen to get us out beyond our Earth, our into the solar system, is we’ve got to be able to travel places faster. Radiation in space is a huge problem. The longer humans are exposed to radiation, the higher risk they have of cancer and other ill effects, and so we’ve got to get people between Earth and other planets faster and minimize that exposure. So that’s something that I want to see.
I also want to see advancement into aging and dying in general.
Natalie: Interesting.
Dr. Rice: I think that’s something we might really see a revolution in our lifetimes.
Natalie: Like prolonging?
Dr. Rice: Prolonging, yeah. Longevity studies. What exactly is it that causes our cells to break down and age and how to we reverse that?
Natalie: And that could also help with us traveling to different places, too. If we live longer then we’ll be able to go farther.
Dr. Rice: Right. And if we’re able to be put into these states of hibernation like astronauts in movies when they go to sleep and they wake up in another corner of the galaxy. Yeah, so I think there’s a combination of physiological, biological research and technological advancements that are required to make us a real space-faring people.
Natalie: Cool! Those are awesome answers. Thank you so much for talking to me.
Dr. Rice: Thank you for having me.
[♪ “Wondaland” by Janelle Monae ♪]
♪ The music floats you gently on your toes
♪ Touch the nose, he’ll change your clothes to tuxedos
♪ Don’t freak and hide
♪ I’ll be your secret santa, do you mind?
♪ Don’t resist
Natalie: Thank you for listening to Spark Science. Today we are at the March for Science in Bellingham on Earth Day of 2017.
[Music continues.]
♪ The magnificent droid plays there
♪ Your magic mind
♪ Makes love to mine
♪ I think I’m in love, angel
This is Natalie with Spark Science. In addition to talking with Captain Wendy Lawrence and Dr. Melissa Rice, I also got to talk to the marchers themselves.
What’s your name?
Ron Coulson [sp?]: Ron Coulson. I am an executive committee member of the Mount Baker Group Sierra Club.
Natalie: So why are you here today, then?
Ron: Because we are making a statement that we have to make changes now. We have to wean ourselves off of burning fossil fuels and into a wholly renewable economy. Science is the only way forward. We certainly can’t rely on superstition to make progress and save the world.
Natalie: Well, that was actually one of my questions that I always ask people, is just like, “Why are you here? Why do you like science?” But the other one, I wanted to know if people had specific goals that they hope to see in their lifetime for scientific advancement.
Ron: I would like to see our entire energy system converted in the next 20 years to being local grids, [inaudible] panels on every roof, wind turbines in every windy valley, hydroelectric to provide our base power level.
Natalie: Cool. Thank you so much for talking to me!
Ron: You’re very welcome.
[♪ “Wondaland” by Janelle Monae ♪]
♪ Take me back to Wondaland
♪ I gotta get back to Wondaland
♪ Take me back to Wondaland
♪ She thinks she left her underpants
Helga Aldridge [sp?]: My name is Helga Aldridge.
Natalie: Helga Aldridge?
Helga: Yes.
Natalie: Well, nice to meet you. My first question is why do you like science, slash why are you here today?
Helga: Well, I’m here first of all because I’m very alarmed of what is happening, all the cuts and everything, including special education, which includes science and so on.
Natalie: Yes.
Helga: And that’s my main reason.
Natalie: So it sounds like you’re mostly here for special education?
Helga: I’m old, but I’m curious about the universe, life in general, and so on. Science benefits all of us.
Natalie: That’s good. You never stop learning, right?
Helga: No, you never will.
Natalie: That’s good. And then my second question is what is the loftiest advancement in science that you would like to see happen in your lifetime?
Helga: I hope to live long enough to learn more about Mars and the exploration of it. And the ever lofty goal I have or wish would be that America becomes smart again to where we used to be, you know? I’m from Europe and I remember when I was growing up, we looked up to America for knowledge and education and so on. And now my friends and family in Europe are going, “What the hell is going on in America?” They think we’re all stupid over here. My goal is that more of us and most of us will stand up and say something when something is unacceptable.
[♪ “Wondaland” by Janelle Monae ♪]
♪ Take me back to Wondaland
♪ I gotta get back to Wondaland
♪ Take me back to Wondaland
♪ She thinks she left her underpants
Natalie: So I’m talking to three students at Western and they’re all physics majors. Can you say your names?
Student: I’m [inaudible].
Martin: I’m Martin.
Holly: I’m Holly.
Natalie: Why do you love science slash why are you here?
Student: This might sound really cheesy, but for me it’s always been really beautiful and it’s always allowed me to use my imagination to come up with solutions and working towards a goal in mind has always been really important for me and being able to contribute to this body of science has always been my ambition, so.
Natalie: So that kind of goes with my other question that I’ve been asking people which is what is the loftiest scientific advancement that you hope to see in your lifetime?
Holly: I mean, I hope we address climate change and our energy issues. I think that’s pressing.
Martin: Personally I’m interested in quantum information. I really want to see the day that we can make the first quantum computer. Once we have a very user-friendly and functional quantum computer, I think that would be amazing.
Student: Going along the same sort of ideas that is when we finally have alternative fuel sources for cars, we obviously have the means to do that on some level now, but the day when those are the norm rather than the exception, I think.
Natalie: I like your sign, Holly, by the way.
Holly: Thank you.
Natalie: It says “resist” in rainbow and it’s in a circuit diagram.
Holly: I went for the low-hanging fruit with this one.
Natalie: With two resistors on either side of it.
Dr. DeGraaff: This is Spark Science and we’ll be back again next week. Listen to us on 102.3 FM in Bellingham or KMRE.org. Streaming on Sundays at 5:00pm, Thursdays at noon, and Saturdays at 3:00pm. If there’s a science idea you’re curious about, send us an email or post a message on our Facebook page, Spark Science. This is an all-volunteer-run show, so if you want to help us out, go to sparksciencenow.com and click on donate. Our producer is Regina Barber DeGraaff. The engineer for today’s show is Natalie Moore. Our theme music is “Chemical Calisthenics” by Blackalicious and “Wondaland” by Janelle Monae.
[♪ “Chemical Calisthenics” by Blackalicious ♪]
♪ Lead, gold, tin, iron, platinum, zinc, when I rap you think
♪ Iodine nitrate activate
♪ Red geranium, the only difference is I transmit sound
♪ Balance was unbalanced then you add a little talent in
♪ Careful, careful with those ingredients
♪ They could explode and blow up if you drop them
♪ And they hit the ground