“It was very boringly taught and just didn’t engage me at all,” he said. “It completely passed me by.”
In fact, it wasn’t until the past few years that he realized science was something he could focus on in his 25-year career – as a songwriter.
Graphic created by Chandler Clay
Haines is a British composer based in South Devon, U.K. He integrates many science themes, including evolution, the food chain and the cosmos, into his songs, some of which are showcased on his website Singtastic.com. He hopes his songs will create public enthusiasm about and interest in science.
“I’m convinced that everybody has the potential to be as passionate about science as I am,” he said. “It’s just that they haven’t had the chance to discover that passion.”
The role art and entertainment play in science awareness
Americans generally have a positive view of science. Most people believe that science plays an important role in society and makes the quality of life better, and scientists are among some of the most well-regarded people in the U.S., according to the Pew Research Center for People and the Press.
However, many people, including political leaders, scientists, educators and others, are concerned about the United States’ sliding position in the world with regard to science and technology. Some studies, such as the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study and the Program for International Student Assessment, place American students’ test scores in science at or below the international average. And the percentage of Americans who say they follow science closely has declined over the past decade, according to a 2010 National Science Foundation survey.
Artistic expression and popular entertainment can play an important role in piquing people’s interest in science, and perhaps encouraging them to enter a scientific field as a career. But how best to utilize art and entertainment to achieve those goals is constantly being tested out by artists and scientists alike.
Matthew Nisbet is an associate professor of communication at American University and writes Age of Engagement, a blog that examines how trends in the media have altered society. He said that art and entertainment can be used to accidentally or incidentally expose people to science-related information or a science topic because it’s presented in a format they’re familiar with.
“It could be they’re visiting an art museum and there’s an exhibit there about a science-related topic, or they’re going to a concert or a poetry reading and a lot of it’s about an environmental issue or a science topic,” he said.
After being exposed to a science issue, Nisbet said, some people will take their piqued interest a step further by following up to learn more and become engaged in the issue.
Nisbet also said that art does not always take a positive view of science.
“Art can be a sign of protest against science,” he said. “In some cases it is directly challenging science, the ethics of it. It’s symbolizing or expressing resistance or concern.”
The songwriter
In Haines’ case, it is certainly not resistance to science that motivates his craft.
“I write science songs the way other people write love songs: out of passion,” he said.
That passion led him to create his website Singtastic. In addition to his songs, many of which are geared towards children, he includes accompanying teaching material on the site.
He said that one of his ambitions is to write a science curriculum for ages 4 through 18 that would go through the basics of science through song and would get children excited about the topics.
Haines said his theory of science education is that it shouldn’t necessarily start with the simple, familiar everyday things.
“We should be teaching really young kids about black holes and quantum physics and genetics — obviously in an accessible way that they’re going to understand,” he said.
“And the reason I think that is because it’s like magic,” he continued. “These things are real, but they’re so distant from our everyday experience that they sound like magic. And I think we should be exciting kids with those stories … and saying, listen to this, isn’t this amazing, this is ridiculous, it’s real! This is real, this happens in our world.”
Haines said, however, his primary goal in songwriting is not to educate.
“I’m not sitting there thinking, now what can I teach people about this particular subject?” Haines said. “That comes into it later on, but that’s not my main motivation. I’m writing about science because I love science.”
Haines said he thinks his focus on expressing passion for science before all else is what helps make his songs resonate with people.
“People feel moved by it, and then they think, well, what are these words saying? It gives them a reason to think a bit more about what the words are.”
He said that some science songs that are more focused on education than on artistic expression can be patronizing, which is off-putting. “They’re either preaching to the converted or else they’re saying, well, you probably won’t understand this, but …”
The comedian
Brian Malow is a self-proclaimed 'science comedian.' Photo by Dorothy Pierce
Brian Malow’s career in comedy might have a different set-up than Haines’, but it has a similar punchline.
He started out with many of the same aspirations as any other typical comedian: college clubs, nightclubs, “The Tonight Show.” He never expected that his career in comedy would include performing for the American Chemical Society, at the first U.S. Science and Engineering Festival or at a conference on Transhumanism.
Malow is a self-proclaimed “science comedian” – much of his act depends on general scientific knowledge to get the jokes.
For example: “I do a joke about my parents losing weight. My dad would lose weight, my mom would gain weight and vice versa. I called it the conservation of mass within my family,” Malow said.
His act has taken him places he said he never would have imagined. The science conferences he’s invited to, for example, and the people he gets to meet, such as Steven Hawking. He also is a video correspondent for Time magazine, for which he makes quirky, informative videos about various science-related topics, such as Darwin’s birthday or time travel.
“These are things that always might have been of interest to me, but it wouldn’t have seemed like part of the path of a comedian,” he said.
Malow said he didn’t start out in comedy with an explicit focus on science, although science did enter into his act from the start.
“As I found my voice more and more,” he said, “the things that interested me and the things that are funny to me … were these really geeky science things.”
His comedy act evolved as his love of science and “general geekiness” increasingly informed his material. And he said that as he focused his act more on the science, it became more important to him not just to make people laugh, but to convey more science information.
He said he sometimes wonders how to strike the right balance between humor and education. “I want to be funny, and if I’m a comedian, obviously, I have to make people laugh,” he said. “But I also want to … communicate some idea about science. It could be actual science content, maybe explain something — or at least communicate just how interesting the field is or how much fun it could be.”
“I think just by calling myself a science comedian … and the types of events I’m hired to speak at, it’s made me feel like I need to move farther along that spectrum towards education,” he said. “I do want to convey more information, but I don’t want to sacrifice the entertainment. I’m a comedian, I don’t want to sacrifice the entertainment part.”
He said that his act has sparked the interest of scientists who want to learn how to better communicate science to the general public.
“[Many scientists] have a lot of experience talking to their colleagues, to their peers, at conferences presenting papers, so most of the public speaking they’ve done was maybe to other scientists,” he said. “Well, talking to a general audience is a little different.”
He taught workshops for scientists about how to become better public speakers at the National Research Council of Canada, and taught a workshop about using humor in science communication at an American Association for the Advancement of Science conference.
“There seems to be a growing interest in this topic,” he said. “I think there’s just more and more awareness that scientists need to be better communicators … and this awareness that if you can make it fun or interesting or funny, then maybe you’ll connect better.”
The other side of the coin
In addition to entertainers helping scientists become better public speakers, some scientists are also reaching out to popular entertainers to help make their science better.
The National Academies of Sciences, a non-governmental and nonprofit organization whose members serve as advisers on science, engineering and medicine, has a program that pairs scientists with film and television producers, directors and writers.
Called the Science & Entertainment Exchange, it has helped find advisors for such movies and television programs as “Iron Man 2,” “The Watchmen,” “Fringe” and “Lost.”
“We are 1-800-I-need-a-scientist,” said Ann Merchant, the deputy executive director of communications at the National Academy of Sciences. “What we hope to do is bring more and potentially better science and engineering to film and to television.”
Prior to the formation of the program, the National Academy of Sciences had been doing low-key science advising, Merchant said. The Exchange was officially launched in 2008 with a symposium in Los Angeles.
“Since the symposium in November of 2008 the phones have been ringing continuously,” Merchant said. “[The entertainment industry] come[s] to us open to the idea that science has a lot to offer … They feel it enriches their ability to tell an engaging story. “
Merchant said, however, that the Exchange understands that the first priority for the film and television industry is not necessarily to be completely scientifically accurate. “We do not want to turn every movie or television program into a documentary,” she said. “But what we try to do is essentially seduce them with science.”
For example, she said that in an “Iron Man 2” scene, Tony Stark builds a particle accelerator in his basement — a plot point that was actually suggested by a Caltech scientist with whom the Exchange connected to the producers of the film.
“Can somebody go build a particle accelerator in their basement tomorrow? No, of course not,” she said. “But if you accept the world in which Tony Stark lives, then that is possible and that adheres to those laws within that universe.”
Merchant said that a connection between scientists and entertainment can have a positive effect on society.
“It’s often difficult to put science in front of the general public,” she said. “Most people are not going to go to a science journal and read the latest paper … So if you use popular culture, which is in front of everyone, as an effective megaphone for the words that can come from the science community, that means that you’re reaching people in a way that is far more effective and powerful.”
She pointed to the popular television show “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation” as an example. “It was not just the science of forensics that captured people’s attention in ‘CSI’ when that first aired … It was these characters that made it interesting. And so people went and sought more information about forensics and now they’re applying to schools and they want to be those people.”
The nexus of art and science
Ultimately, Haines said that art and entertainment are not a replacement for science education. “I wouldn’t want people to think that was the answer,” he said. “That it replaces the textbooks and the experiments and the real work.”
But Haines said art can still be important in getting people excited about science.
And Malow might agree that any little bit helps: “I think there is this growing awareness from both sides, but especially from the science community [that] there’s a need for people to be more science literate than they are,” said Malow.
He said that getting people excited about science might be an important part of that process.
“There are a lot of science issues that factor prominently into our lives,” he said. “If people don’t think science is important or cool, they’re mistaken and that’s a problem right there.”
“Basic science stuff is really fundamental and important and really neat, and that needs to be conveyed starting at childhood so people aren’t scared of it and instead they embrace it,” he said. “It’s our way of knowing the world.”