I used to think I loved science – studied physics, chemistry, and biology in university and graduated with a degree in cell and molecular biology from McGill University.  I loved to read my immunology books and journals when I was in med school and later as an allergist. I especially love(d) basic mechanisms and how they affect the whole. I’m just letting my sub to Nature go – after 45 years of subscription to either it or “Science”, in addition to my trade journals.

I was immersed in an ecosystem of aspirants though was never a principal investigator (PI). I didn’t have to submit to anyone for grants -a process I had witnessed as a foster child growing up while my foster father sweated out weeks of proposals for anyone who’d give him money to develop his ideas. 

I worked in NIH labs as well as University of Virginia (and Biogen).  I was always a paid associate – following someone else’s dreams and ideals- trying to help them publish useful results. 

Turns out it’s very easy to make small mistakes with even the most careful work ethic- and there was always a component of imprecision. No matter how slowly or carefully I went (otherwise my duplicates or triplicates would be exactly the same – which they weren’t).

And this is how the system is built, everyone on each other’s backs, so to speak.

 Turns out our scientific method is flawed. 

Taking a subject out of its ecosystem of comfort and subjecting to a series of experiments , which we measure, usually in a laboratory of sorts- puts the subject in “defense” mode (immunologically and physically), enclosed in cages or white rooms terrifies subconsciously. (Living creatures are a resilient product of their natural green environment – whatever responses we get are a fraction of what is possible.) 

We are studying light reflected off of probabilistic electron clouds after all-and trying to predict their behavior. (All living beings made of living tissues, composed of cells and molecules – each with their version of energetic orbitals and in the 3-D are basically bound organs of orchestrating mitochondria living in a world of virtual responsiveness). 

Creatures don’t shift or change their behavior unless they are forced to; already most PI are a version of megalomaniac. They might have been told by a trusted friend or parent that it was their only useful option to being successful in life (to go hide in a lab).

Studies aren’t reproducible because the environments aren’t the same – nor is the actual mouse, rat, or monkey, let alone hu(e)-man you’re studying- even if they’re identical genetically – one might have had more light (inducing more melanin), another more fear and chronic cortisol – and less oxytocin. 

As such the results are already, for the most part, fallacy. As we are coming to learn. Trials aren’t reproducible. 

Schools where we are taught a catechism of subjects, create a version of silo. Instead of working together, people are competitive and pit against each other. Nothing  is genuinely cooperative.

 I think we’d all be much more successful if we were educed by our natural (and essential) environments. Let all kids learn basic life skills in early school – teach science, math, and history of each essential subject (cooking, sewing, woodworking, metalworking)- as there for sure is STEM in all of them. You never know, you might really like one of them. Given what we know about gender (and how we all are a little of this and that),  don’t segregate anything by sex – but let it self sort by ability (allowing for smaller tools for smaller hands). 

We’ll bring more people into blooming. During the pandemic folks who had a strong hobby fared better economically than those without.

Sure, there will be outliers purporting snake oil – which is what science is now (and medicine btw) – but illness (or as I like to call it I’ll-ness) will be less if folks aren’t so measured and stamped as they are now. I wrote a long essay on this inspiration: https://drjenwyman-clemons.com/2023/04/09/the-souk-part-1/ on my WordPress site;

( My main page is drjenwyman-clemons.com)

Meanwhile it won’t matter at all until we heal the teachers and leaders (doctors, priests, ministers, imams, rabbis). Everyone else is doing their bidding. 

Blessings, 

Here’s a link to the original article:

https://open.substack.com/pub/experimentalhistory/p/good-ideas-dont-need-bayonets?r=1am588&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email

PS – and for those truly meant to be scientists – let every child go outside – spend some time observing – perhaps record with a drawn picture or a little story. Then to come in and share with their collective. Some will be fantastic at this-will write a riveting story or show an intricacy of beetle no one had noticed before. This may become their niche; others will gain inspiration and curiosity from the sharing.