The power of curiosity and asking questions
A few days ago I was asked to write an entry to our schools blog, something I personally consider as a huge honor! However, if I’m being honest, I had no clue what I should be saying here. I thought about a bunch of cool and crazy scientific facts, talking about insects or even Covid 19 but then, I realized that we all need something fun and that every topic I was thinking of had two common abilities: Curiosity and questioning.
Have you realized how curiosity drives us? Since we are born, it is part of our nature. As babies, human beings feel curious about what surrounds them: what is that sound? What is that sensation? What is that taste? How does this work? Why does this happen?
As we grow up, our scope and perspective changes however, these aspects are never forgotten. As kids we wonder about our surroundings, while as teenagers we ask about emotions, but as adults most of us try to avoid asking too many questions. Nevertheless, we keep on asking them without noticing.
Questioning and feeling curiosity is normal, is part of our daily life. It seems as something not so big but, what we do not realize is how these questions are considered as making science. Yes, we do science everyday! With every question, with every research, inference and even little experiments. Probably at this moment you are saying, ok you are in fact crazy. Well, probably I am. Or probably I’m not… I’m leaving that question for you.
Do you remember your elementary school science classes, when your teacher told you about something known as the scientific method. A well known step by step to do science. Let’s bring it back: you start with a problem and a question, which of course you want to solve. Based on these, you wonder about it and create your hypotheses and predictions. You even propose an experiment or a methodology to test that hypothesis you built. Depending on the results, you analyze and choose either to test again with a new methodology or to bring up a conclusion. Sound familiar?
Every single day we ask ourselves questions, we feel curiosity about a certain topic, situation or event. We wonder about it and find a way to test it. Finally, the acquired results lead us to create a conclusion! Let’s make it more real, pretend you like someone, and you wonder and ask yourself if this person likes you back or not. So, you create an “excuse” to establish a conversation with this person. As time goes by and based on the reactions this person has, you can conclude either this person likes you back or not.
Let’s try another scenario. Imagine you just had an amazing dinner with your family at one of your favorite restaurants. Your parents ask if you want to have a dessert then, automatically you ask yourself: should I get it or not? Would it be good for me? Or on some other occasions, should I get a chocolate cake or an ice cream? Well, you felt curiosity, you asked questions and based on what you chose, you tested one or the other. This experience drives you to say at the end either your choice was good or not, or if it had a positive or negative result, even if the chocolate cake was a good option or not!
See? Science is everywhere and we don’t even notice, probably the reason why is because we are used to believe that science is just for the scientific community and, here comes my opinion, science in fact is for and done by everyone!
So, next time you wonder about something, acknowledge your curiosity and the scientific process you are automatically developing. Let everyday surprise you and, the most important part, have fun while doing so (always try the chocolate cake).
