Sunday, June 8, 2008

pop science like pop art and pop music

Popularizing Science
There has been a world-wide effort in creating a scientific temper in the community, but we constantly fail to activate an overarching systematic issue of using science in giving context and meaning to life.
Art and music have a category called POP, meaning popular. Although these subjects are woven intrinsically with technology, it is appreciated and relished by millions. That is because the common man sheds technological details from art and music. One may not need to understand the underlying process of making a particular dye from a particular chemical to relish a painting. In the same way, it may not be imperative to figure out the working of a synthesizer to weave music in one’s life.
In making science popular, the focus is on the need to gain competency with science’s underlying technical details. We need to shed these and create a pop science for the common man to appreciate and relish. Pop science could well be the greatest adventure in our life
We must embark on a cultural shift that places science in its rightful place alongside art, music and literature as an indispensable part of what makes life worth living. And for this we must relate the way art and music is Popped.