Hello, everyone.
So today I have the amazing Tom from "Science of Tom" with me.
Hello.
If you haven't seen it yet, we made a great Adele parody over
on his channel.
So you should go check it out.
And we talk about, in that video, reasons
why science makes the world so much more better and amazing
and mysterious and wonderful and awesome
rather than taking those things away.
So I wanted to just sit here and chat
with Tom about our thoughts on that subject.
I've got a lot of thoughts on that subject.
All right.
So why don't you tell me some of your thoughts on that subject?
Well, I think it starts for me in high school.
I didn't really get into science until that stage.
And it was funny.
It was very similar to a story you were just telling me.
Which is that I remember when I learned
about protein synthesis and the fact
that it was happening in every cell in my body.
I started staring at my hand, and I
felt like I had X-ray vision to see all the way down
to that microscopic level and the little molecular machines
that were happening there.
And same thing with photosynthesis,
where, when I learned about that,
I would start to look at trees.
And just staring up at a tree is already
one of the most beautiful things you can do on Planet Earth.
Yes.
But then once you have this additional layer
of all of the complexity of those molecular machines,
it just makes you feel an almost spiritual connection
to the things around you.
The thing that is so exciting about putting
your own existence on Planet Earth in this long trajectory
of planets forming and suns exploding and evolution--
Yeah.
--A, it's just like an epic story.
Yes.
It's a good story.
Yeah.
But the cool thing about it is that it's constantly changing.
Yeah.
Evolution is a good example, where
we're discovering new fossils just
about every year that are reshaping our entire family
tree.
And so you kind of feel like you're almost understanding
how things played out.
But then you have to be capable of saying, no, it was that.
So the fact that the story can change and our understanding
gets less and less wrong over time--
Yeah.
--is a really beautiful thing about how
science lets me view my own place in the world.
I think that's a really cool thing to think about,
too, is the fact that science starts with a hypothesis
and then tests that hypothesis, and then builds up
its knowledge of the world.
But then new things can come in and extend that
and expand that.
So that we--
I don't know.
We're sort of at this point, at all points
in history, where we think we get it, and we understand it.
And we do to some extent.
But there's so much more that needs to be done,
that needs to be explored.
And there's always new questions.
And the fact that our world view, through science, is just
constantly growing and changing and expanding is amazing to me.
I think that's so cool.
And also to be in a position to be able to add to that is,
I don't know.
Whenever I am complaining about grad school,
I have to step back and be, like, no, but I'm
adding to science, and that's awesome,
and not everyone gets that opportunity.
And that feeling of just being sort of bowled over and blown
back by science is amazing to me.
Yeah.
I think that's super cool.
Agreed-- the sense of wonder, the sense of curiosity,
I guess--
I feel lucky to be a human being.
I mean, not every living organism gets to have--
as far as we know--
Right.
--the same sense of reading a book
and really grappling with issues at this intellectual level.
And I feel like science, and other fields--
I don't want to hate on other fields,
because I've got a lot of love for other ways of approaching
these questions--
I do, too.
--for the inter-integration of these fields.
And so it just so happens for me personally that science
provides the most compelling lens
through which to explore a lot of these things.
Yeah.
I like that idea, that this is the sort of the lens
that we have chosen to look at some of these bigger
philosophical questions in the world that I think everybody
has at some point.
Where do we fit in the world?
Where do we fit in both this moment in time and all of time
together and in this place and in this world?
And science makes me feel humbled
to have a place in all of this and also so privileged
to have a place in all of this, that I
can be a part of this amazing world and universe and galaxy
that we live in.
And that there's still so much more left to explore of.
I'm sure Adele's thought about that.
I bet she has.
And so when she watches this video, after watching
the other video--
Clearly.
--I hope that she's able to comment and just let
us know what you think, Adele.
I'm curious.
Yeah, I mean, Adele, if you have thoughts
on how to use science as a lens to view the world,
we would love to hear it.
You should-- we can-- we've got another chair back here.
Yeah.
We can have Adele come and join us.
Next time you're coming through Palo Alto--
Hit us up.
So thank you so much, Tom--
Thank you for having me.
--for coming and joining me.
If you haven't seen our video yet
that we did over on Tom's channel,
we'll put it somewhere around here-- maybe over there, maybe
over there.
You'll find it.
You can go click on it.
And while you're there, you should absolutely
subscribe to Tom's channel.
He does amazing stuff with "Science with Tom."
And you can go check out even more science videos over there.
So go forth and do science.
[MUSIC - "SEND MY LOVE (TO YOUR NEW LOVER)"]
(SINGING) Look around you.
Take a look see.
Make it hands on.
See if it fuels your curiosity.
And you tell me there's no mystery.