Leave comments on the film itself on this page, or browse the rest of the site for the contributions that led to it, others that are mentioned in the film, and more still that were inspired by it. If the film doesn't play smoothly for you, click its 'HD' button to turn the high-definition version off. You can also watch the film in short chapters at this page.

Laura Goodall: because it creates wonderful new opportunities and gives us choices

May 6, 2009 – 6:00 AM

Laura Goodall is a science communicator with a background in human genetics. She currently works at Science Photo Library and in her spare time she freelances as a science writer. She is also Publications Secretary at the British Science Association’s Central London branch, Science London, and a contributor at WeBlogScience.com

Science is important because it creates opportunities in life that make us who we are. Science has given us choices that we now take for granted.

For me, this is particularly relevant because I was born partially deaf and wear hearing aids. Both the advanced medical techniques that identified which frequencies my hearing lacks and the innovative engineering of hearing devices that reinstated these frequencies meant that I now have the same opportunities as hearing people throughout my life. My peers forget that I am hard of hearing and think of me as the same as them. I also take my ability to hear for granted, but without the science behind my hearing aids, I wouldn’t even BE the person that I am today. Similarly, if it wasn’t for the scientific research and development behind eyewear, artificial limbs, pacemakers, hip replacements and so on, most people would be struggling with life as they know it now.

Even the lucky few of us who are fully able-bodied have had opportunities elicited by scientific innovation, shaping them as individuals. Thanks to progressively more sophisticated transport and communication technologies, we can talk to someone on the other side of the world just by logging onto the internet, and we can immerse ourselves in an entirely different culture thousands of miles away within just a few hours. Without science we would all still be limited to talking to locals in villages on our small island, but now we have a choice between that life and a life of meeting people from different backgrounds and appreciating the great diversity of cultures on this planet.

The opportunities presented by science also extend far beyond our personal boundaries. As many have said before me on this website, humans as a species are intrinsically curious and science provides us with increasingly more advanced tools for exploration. It allows us to look at the interactions of human societies in the world as well as investigate the non-human aspects of nature, and to try and answer the core question about our existence: “where do we fit in, in the big picture?”

We’ve even extended this curiosity to realms outside of Earth: stellar systems that may house Earth-like planets have already been identified, and radio signals are being emitted deep into outer space in the hope that an intelligent life form will communicate with us. Perhaps this scientific exploration will eventually lead to us having a choice of either remaining here on Earth or moving to a new planet with an entirely alien ecosystem, which will open doors to a whole host of new opportunities for us.

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Nigel Henbest: moving on from gods and demons

April 21, 2009 – 10:06 AM

Nigel Henbest is an award-winning writer and TV producer, specialising in science and space. A founder of the leading independent television production company Pioneer Productions, his major television credits include the series Body Atlas, Universe, Edge of the Universe and The Day the Earth was Born; and the documentaries On Jupiter, Black Holes, Challenger and - most recently - Journey to the Edge of the Universe. These productions have garnered seven international awards, including Banff and the New York Festivals’ Grand Award.

As well as his work in television, Nigel has written 35 books and over 1000 articles, which have been translated into 27 languages. He is a columnist for The Independent newspaper and BBC Focus magazine. Asteroid 3795 is named “Nigel” in his honour; and he is enrolled to travel into space with Virgin Galactic in 2011.

It’s taken me some time to come round to answering this question; not because it’s difficult, but because it is too easy. After all: Why is music important? Why is breathing important?

Trying to understand the world around is, I believe, hard-wired into human nature. And “science” is just that process of understanding. Yes, you can interpret nature in terms of gods and demons. But, sooner or later, you are likely to move on. The mind is finely tuned to pick out patterns in the world around us; and once you have the leisure - as the Greek middle classes did in the first few centuries BC - you begin to see how the world is set out on rational principles.

And that rationalism is based deep inside us. When non-scientists profess to me that the scientific method is divorced from everyday life, I like to point out what I learned when acting as the foreman on a jury at the Old Bailey. What struck me then was weighing up the evidence in a law-court is, basically, the same as doing science. It’s looking for a pattern in pieces of evidence that may be, superficially, contradictory; and finding a conclusion that meshes all the lines of evidence together.

For those who find science intimidatingly complex, I’d suggest following a case of serious fraud, where juries are often flummoxed by the devious nature of the evidence and the finer points of criminal law. I think the case for the Earth orbiting the Sun, the atomic nature of matter or the evolution of life on Earth is actually easier to understand. And, to the human mind, it’s a fitting verdict on the evidence.

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Heather Couper: the driver behind our culture, our mores, and our belief

April 16, 2009 – 3:39 PM

Heather Couper is an international broadcaster and writer on astronomy, space and science. Although a scientist by training, she has spent the last twenty years working entirely in the media. She has hosted many TV programmes and radio shows - including the long-running series Seeing Stars on BBC World Service. She has also written over 30 books, including The History of Astronomy and Universe. On 2 June 1999 the International Astronomical Union named asteroid number 3922 “Heather” in her honour.

I see science as a vision. As a landscape. As a perspective for us to reflect on the events that are happening in the world - and how to see a way ahead.

I’ll take the last statement first. Currently, science doesn’t have a great press. Stem-cell research, genetic modification and cloning are looked upon as unnatural. But science has the power to change lives, and to help humankind move forward. However - the bottom line is that I believe science underpins our whole existence. It’s the driver behind our culture, our mores, and our beliefs.

It’s incredible how science has gradually replaced mythology with rational explanation. The god Thor used to hurl thunderbolts; but now we know the reasons behind our electric skies. Deities - like Mars and Jupiter - used to grace our night skies. In the 21st century, we know that these are fascinating worlds in their own right: two of millions in the Universe.

When it comes to culture, I find it amazing that in just over 500 years, humankind has dethroned Earth from being the centre of the Universe. It’s become a mere blob circling an average, suburban, middle-age star in an unremarkable galaxy. And that says a lot about us. By discovering our real place in the cosmos, we’re now motivated to explore. And soon we will have people - who may even live next door - realising their dreams to travel into space, on to the Moon, and beyond.

When I think of the future, I wonder what those new cosmic visions and landscapes will open up for generations to come. And where it all might lead?

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Anna Starkey: it's the process of science that's important

April 7, 2009 – 8:44 AM

Anna Starkey is a writer, producer and science communicator. With a passion for physics fuelled by an incredible teacher, Frank Close’s Royal Institution Lectures and numerous school trips to CERN, she was inspired to study physics and science communication. Since then, Anna has worked as an explainer at the London Science Museum and as the UK Particle Physics Outreach Officer for STFC, as well as writing on a collection of animated children’s series in between. She currently works as a development producer and writer in children’s television and is an active Science and Engineering Ambassador, making regular visits to schools where she gets asked extremely brilliant questions and is made to think very hard about the universe.

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Kat Arney: the importance of evidence in medicine

March 31, 2009 – 9:33 AM

Dr Kat Arney is an ex-scientist and works as a Science Information Officer at Cancer Research UK, writing about the charity’s work and often appearing in the media. She writes for their Science Update blog, and produces and presents the Cancer Research UK podcast. In her spare time, she is a freelance science writer, and co-presents the Naked Scientists. And in the rest of her spare time she is a musician, playing in several bands. She rarely sleeps.

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Matt Thurling: the lies of science communication

March 25, 2009 – 5:36 PM

Matt Thurling is the founder of science.TV. He studied jazz trumpet at the Guildhall School of Music before becoming involved in digital media. Matt co-developed the ground-breaking online community gorillaz.com and is now based in Bristol’s Pervasive Media Studio.

I run science.TV. When someone with as little scientific background as me finds himself in such a position, it’s clear something is wrong. I think that the role found me because science does a terrible job of promoting itself and, if you don’t mind, I’ll use this site to share my ideas why.

Have you ever been to see a film that everyone is raving about? Slumdog Millionaire springs to mind. Not a bad film in the grand scheme of things - but I hated it. Why? Because people were so keen to tell me how brilliant it was. It is human nature to be sceptical of evangelism. This scepticism is particularly true in kids. As adults, we’ve mostly given up on honesty and accept a level of positive spin as the norm. Kids haven’t, so when we lie to them we shouldn’t be surprised when they react negatively. There are, it seems, two main lies in science communication. Firstly, science is ‘exciting’ and secondly science is ‘good’.

Ok, so the first isn’t a lie. Science is, of course, exciting, but not in the same way that penalty shoot-outs or casual sex are exciting. Bits of it are painfully tedious, mind-numbingly slow, difficult, threatening. But the rewards of applying the scientific method to a problem are huge. The excitement of finally getting data from the LHC, for example, must be immense - but a hundred times more so if you’ve put the effort into constructing the experiment. Most kids understand this. Things are exciting in different ways and have different patterns of effort and reward. There’s really no sense in explaining one in terms of the other. This leads on to another favourite of science evangelists which I think does more harm than good: expecting a positive reaction when telling a child that his or her iPod wouldn’t exist if it weren’t for science, that everything is made by science - isn’t it wonderful..? This is a patronising and very boring thing to say and I don’t understand how anyone could expect a positive response for this pearl of banality. What’s the logic?

The second lie about science - that science is ‘good’. The example given is almost always medicine. As a child I remember thinking that keeping old and diseased people alive was a stupid thing to do. That was a while ago, but the World was already overpopulated. The consequences of overpopulation are much clearer now. Fortunately, my thinking is less clear so I am not so rabidly pro-euthanasia. My point (bear with me) is that whether science is ‘good’ or not is a complex issue. Trying to argue that it is good because a human life has been saved is a pathetic lie which kids can see right through.

Science is neither good nor bad, it is morally neutral. What science is - undeniably - is powerful. So my tip for getting young people into science: remember the brutal honesty of your audience. Calmly - and without spin - demonstrate the power of the scientific method in tackling the unknown and there will be no need for people like me to be involved in science communication.

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David Hone: Why taxonomy is important

March 24, 2009 – 9:19 AM

Dr David Hone is a vertebrate palaeontologist working in Beijing on dinosaur behaviour. He also runs several websites devoted to science education.

Taxonomy is the field of research devoted to naming and describing living organisms - everything from bacteria and viruses to whales and flowers. It is an essential yet much underappreciated aspect of scientific research and without it huge branches of biology and other sciences would be near impossible. Taxonomists provide the basic vocabulary of biology if you like, defining each new species (individual words) and making sure there are accurate definitions of those species (like a dictionary) and records of those species, as DNA or actual specimens in museums so that everyone knows exactly which species is which and what other species it is related to. Without this kind of knowledge we cannot begin to do the simplest things with any degree of accuracy - if you do not know what species any given organism belongs to, then it becomes very hard to say anything meaningful about it.

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Rob Lyons: to come to better conclusions

March 14, 2009 – 10:00 PM

Rob Lyons is deputy editor of spiked. His main writing interests are in science, health and environmental issues, including a column - ‘Don’t Panic!’ - that questioned many popular scare stories.

Science is simply the human attempt to understand the world, the better to use it for our benefit. In order to pursue science effectively, we have to do two, apparently contradictory things which illuminate what science is.

Firstly, we need to learn and understand the gains of science to date. Science is a social and historical activity. To see further, to paraphrase Newton, we must stand on the shoulders of giants. This is true of almost every field of human endeavour from music to cookery - the great innovators have usually started by engaging fully with what has been developed before. There’s no inspiration without the perspiration.

Secondly, we need to be sceptical and questioning of everything that has been said before. When scientific conclusions are accepted as unquestionable facts handed down to us from on high, we can never make progress. My favourite example of this is the discovery of the bacterium H.pylori by the Australians Robin Warren and Barry Marshall. If they had accepted the received wisdom that bacteria cannot survive in the acidic conditions of the stomach, they may not have discovered that this bacterium causes the majority of peptic and duodenal ulcers.

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Joanne Manaster: the raison d'etre of many

March 14, 2009 – 9:19 PM

Joanne Manaster works as a laboratory teaching specialist and lecturer at the University of Illinois in Urbana. She expresses her passion for science in a unique way at her own website here.

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A Massive Thank You

March 10, 2009 – 8:09 AM

So, as you’ll notice if you look above this post, the film is finally done. A massive thank you to everyone who’s contributed to the project so far. I’ll be continuing to post answers to the question as they keep coming in.

As some of you know, the first idea for this project was to make a film; then this website came along. The film, ultimately, is the story of the website. I hope you’ll take the time and trouble to watch it here and let us know your thoughts by leaving a comment.

I have one more favour to ask - please help this project to succeed further, and help other projects like it to take off, by spreading the word about it through your blogs, facebook and other social networking sites, and just emailing a link to everyone you know. You’ve all helped make this project, now please help get it out there.

Thank you, Alom.

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