Scientific Sara(h)

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[Before we get started, I have a bit of breaking news. I've created a petition that asks General Motors to exhibit The People of Detroit in the GM Renaissance Building in downtown Detroit during the 2012 North American International Auto Show. I want to collect 10,000 signatures before December 15th. The idea is to convince GM that this exhibition - and the international attention it would garner - is a good idea for Detroit and for GM itself. If you agree[which you do], go here.]

I'm a resident with the Creative Ventures business accelerator program. Fellow Ventures resident business Detroit Lives!  is in the process of filming promotional videos for the accelerator program. I went out with crew the other day so they could record me doing my TPOD thing.

We headed over to the Wayne State University campus in Midtown where Phil and Steve watched me stand around for about 15 minutes like a first-class creep while I waited for someone to happen along who didn't seem too immersed in a smart phone conversation or too worried about making it to class on time. 

Finally, the young woman pictured above passed. The spectacle of me standing there with my camera while another man filmed me with his camera piqued her interest for long enough for me to ask if she'd like to participate in the cause for which all these cameras had been arrayed. 

She was up for it. 

Sara(h) is a freshman at WSU studying something related to the natural sciences. I don't know how her name is spelled exactly or what she's majoring in exactly because I'm too much of a rebel to use lame tools like the so-called "notepad." Record thoughts so you can remember them later. Who does that?

In any case, Scientific Sara(h) was super cool. She grew up near Detroit and currently resides on the east side (if the notepad in my brain suits me). I was pleasantly surprised when she said she was studying science. 

Science is the best method humanity has for objectively understanding how the world works. That objective knowledge is the only basis on which prudent decisions can be made. 

Yet, to paraphrase a quote I heard recently, at no other time have so many relied on science, while so few understand how science works. 


Good to see people like Sara(h) countering that trend. 

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I'd be remiss to bemoan the state of science literacy in America without offering an antidote. Here are a few of the web's best science education and critical thinking podcasts. All available for free. All full of useful information about how the world works. 


If knowledge is power, then we should all actively participate in knowing shit. 

• The Skeptics' Guide to the Universe
• Radiolab
• StarTalk with Neil deGrasse Tyson
• The Naked Scientist
• Point of Inquiry