Unconventional science lessons in health

Embracing uncertainty

This tends to be an unconventional public stance for scientists these days, which could be why our first draft text this month felt so fresh when it began by doing just that.

The author described working in science for most of their adult life, and having believed, in the past, that after putting in endless of hours of research and experimentation, they would emerge being able to say, "I have proof; I am right, you are wrong".

But the author went on to describe realizations that have dawned for them since: that science deals not in proof but in evidence; that a scientist tries to gather evidence that their hypothesis is not right, but wrong; and that science is not a process of building certainty but of carefully, analytically, and incrementally trying to decrease uncertainty.

In turn, this essay had emerged, the author wrote, after they had repeatedly hit up against walls of certainty about their subject of research—obesity—everywhere among the public. In response, the author felt driven to throw themselves, and their readers, deep into the unknowns, uncertainties, and mysteries of obesity science instead.

As readers, we felt that diving into scientific mysteries that haven't necessarily yet been solved created a welcome sense of suspense and intrigue which, perhaps even more so than confident assertions of certainty, helped lure us into learning the nuances of the science.

Teaching science through yoga

Speaking of learning, our second June text was even more unconventional—a script for a series of yoga lessons. Figuring out how to weave yoga movements together with an interactive class teaching neuroscience and the management of migraines was a fun challenge. Many of us ended up wanting to take this "Neurelina Yoga" class ourselves—scicomm knows no bounds!

Image: panchanok premsrirut, Vecteezy