How to see the fun side of science books?

Many people find it easier to get through novels and comics over their course books and that's totally understandable.

On an average, a 13 year old would pick his/her favourite comic over an algebra question bank.

Why?

Because books that develop us for a long run, needs patience and hard work.

You need a good brain capacity to get your way through a collection of 400 pages having history or science in it.

And many students choose not to do it.

They find ways to skip it which results in lots of disappointments unless it's for a good cause or their passion.

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Science in my opinion is like a rollercoaster ride. It's adventurous for some people, and nauseating to others.

I. Your very first step should be to find stories or philosophies behind the paragraphs you are reading -

Come on, make those words infront of you interesting in your own way.

As for me, I read about Cytokine barriers this morning which is a part of Innate immunity. What I found interesting was in this kind of barrier, the virus infected cells secrete proteins called interferons which protect non infected cells from further viral infection. This actually seemed beautiful in terms of mankind service.

Those cells, which are already dying, are saving others from getting infected.

II. Seek interesting experiments and facts -

There are millions of things waiting to give you goosebumps. All you need to do is find an encyclopaedia or take help from the internet (it can be very beneficial if you use this for your own betterment rather than searching rated pictures of your favourite people)

Below are some of the experiments I was taught a few years ago, that still keeps me awake in this field.

• The rice experiment was invented years ago by Masaru Emoto, an “alternative-science” researcher who believed in the literal power of thought. The goal of the experiment was to show that a person's attitude towards anything affects what happens to it. Emoto prepared three jars with rice. He wrote: “I love you” on the first one, “You idiot” on the other one and ignored the third one. After a month, the first jar of rice went sour, and there was mould on the rice in the second and third jar. The rice that got ignored had the most mould.

The moral of this science story is that being nice matters.

• Erwin Schrödinger was one of the greatest minds the world of math and science has ever known. The famous thought experiment that now bares his name—“Schrödinger’s Cat”—is a testament just how absurdly counterintuitive the universe can really be. In simple terms, he stated that if you place a cat and something that could kill the cat(a radioactive atom) in a box and sealed it, you would not know if the cat was dead or alive until you opened the box, so that until the box was opened, the cat was (in a sense) both "dead and alive".

The existence of a cat that is both dead and alive at the same time is absurd and does not happen in the real world, this thought experiment shows that wave function collapses are not just driven by conscious observers.

III. Know that whatever you learn right now, will make a better and an improved you - you've come a long way, and keeping that in mind, you know things. Things that you learnt from your family, from your friends or your neighbours and books.

They might look boring with a sight, but once you start understanding those words, you won't be able to leave them.

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Science is part of reality of living; it is the what, the how, and the why of everything in our experience.

- Rachel Carson