I’m fascinated by people for whom science and math comes easily. Over the holidays I struck up a conversation with someone that works for JPL at a party. He works with gravitational waves. Or maybe he measures them, or talks to them. Okay, I don’t remember what exactly his job was, but it definitely had to do with gravitational waves. And honestly, the reason I don’t remember isn’t because I wasn’t listening, because I was, and even asked him to go into detail. It’s just that I had no idea what he was talking about, and so my brain took in the data, and then promptly ejected it to make room for something else, like storing useless information about frogs or shampoo or something. Most of science is based in mathematics, and math and I are not friends – my mind just doesn’t work that way. Sure I can add, subtract, and do all the basic things. But algebra? No. Geometry? I was never able to prove a single thing, other than I suck at math. And I never made it to trigonometry so I couldn’t even tell you what it is.
Side note – I looked it up on Wikipedia. Surely I’m not the only one that doesn’t know.
Trigonometry (from Greek trigōnon “triangle” + metron “measure”[1]) is a branch of mathematics that studies triangles and the relationships between their sides and the angles between these sides. Trigonometry defines the trigonometric functions, which describe those relationships and have applicability to cyclical phenomena, such as waves. The field evolved during the third century BC as a branch of geometry used extensively for astronomical studies.[2] It is also the foundation of the practical art of surveying.
Oh, right, triangles. I guess I do know trigonometry – isosceles, equilateral…and the other ones. I stopped paying attention halfway through the definition.
Anyway, in spite of my complete lack of mathematical ability, I love science. Today I read this article in Science Daily – apparently, a group of researchers created a way to store data in DNA. Among the information they encoded? An mp3 of Martin Luther King’s I Have a Dream Speech and a text file of all Shakespeare’s sonnets.
Wow-ee wow wow wow.
I mean, the idea makes sense. DNA is sturdy stuff, after all, we extract it from crap we’ve dug from the ground that has been dead for tens of thousands of years. Hell, my computer seems to die a horrible death every few years and leaves nothing recoverable. So the fact that genetic material can be extracted from DNA means nature is much better at storing data than Dell. You know what else is cool about DNA? It’s fucking tiny. All the data the researchers synthesized into DNA strands came to something about the size of a dust particle.
Actually, that’s kind of where science lost me. Look, we must have a dozen data sticks floating around our apartment, not to mention memory cards, hard drives, and other assorted pieces of technological crap intended to store data. And you know what? I can never find any of them when I need to. If I can’t hold onto something the size of my pinky, how in the hell am I supposed to keep track of dust?
But still, it’s pretty awesome.
I believe this is how Keanu Reeves came to know kung fu.
Science!
My math teacher in secondary school (equivalent to your high school) used to shake her head at me and say ‘hopeless’, every time I handed in homework, so Math has never been a subject that excited me. Although I do like using excel!
I took some kind of trig for dummies. There were 6 dummies in the class. I remember nothing about triangles. Hence the dummy part.
So, does this mean that if that info is in our DNA and we have children, that the children will be born with an inate knowledge of all of Shakespeare’s sonnets and MLK’s speech?
Is that not how it works? Science isn’t my thing. See above re: dummy.
Science and math are VERY distinct. Sure, because most physics is math-based, me and physics get along pretty well (I’m a math nerd…I can do some fairly advanced calculus in my sleep), but chemistry…forget about it. I can grasp basic biology and anatomy, but most of it escapes me. That’s not to say I don’t find it fascinating, but I spend most of my time smiling and nodding unless it’s physics (astrophysics is the MOST fascinating).
But I will agree that you just have to born with the “brain” for various things. I have BRILLIANT friends who suck at math or just don’t get econ (which requires a particularly narrow and pessimistic world view), and other BRILLIANT friends who roll their eyes at me when I change the subject as soon as chemistry comes up (oh, sure, those chemical equations LOOK like math, but they’re far from it). I couldn’t write a decent poem if you held a gun to my head, but can do linear algebra drunk and sleep deprived; and have other friends who couldn’t write a fairly basic algebraic expression if their life depended on it, but could probably compose a symphony or design a world-class piece of art on a cocktail napkin. But I agree with you that remaining curious, even if you don’t totally “get it” is the best way to live richly. Neil deGrasse Tyson may talk over my head 99% of the time, but I listen every time he pops up on PBS, because I know he’s going to say something interesting. On a daily basis, I deal with people who don’t fully “get” the calculations I do, but if I can get them to realize the basic point of the calc, and why it’s important, I’ve succeeded. No need to know everything, just to realize that my math is as important as their analysis of the law for our project, and scientists’ contributions are just as valuable as poets (and bloggers).
Boyfriend and I talk about storing stuff in DNA all the time, but we can’t actually figure out how they do it! Too hard to grasp
Wow. That is impressive. Now my brain is filled with cheesy 80s sci fi future plots where the bad guys are hunting down the hero becasue of information stored in his very DNA. Then he has to evade them through the future city possible with future helicopters and future kung foo. And everybody is wearing what looks like car mats cut up into body armor.
Yeah, something like that.
I suck at science, but excel at math. I mean really excel. I have taken Master’s level Advanced Calculus, Non-Euclidian Geometry, Finite Mathematics and many others. I even enjoy it.
Although, I can’t pass a basic Accounting class to save my life.
Same here, with some qualifications. I *have* taken master’s degree level math and passed it, though I didn’t excel in it (but, hey, if you can muster a C when half the class is failing, you’re doing okay, right?). And I can and have passed accounting classes. I chalk it up to an early, rigorous education in international financial systems. If you can balance the books of every country in the world, you can handle a hypothetical (or real, sometimes, in my job) MNC’s books, right?
No no no Dollface! you got it wrong: “and even asked him to go into detail. It’s just that I had no idea what he was talking about, and so my brain took in the data,” You didn’t forget it, I promise.
You are learning math and science. Maybe you aren’t Sheldon Cooper or even kuoothrapali- but that stuff is still in there. There is a secret to learning M&S for most of us: it takes a while to sink in, and it needs practical application. So your brain stored it behind frog shampoo. but if you ever see a show or article on the same stuff in the future, your brain will go- “Hey I know something like that.” and then it will slowly come to you. Eventually you will understand the concepts, earlier than eventually if you spend enough time. Take steven hawking’s book, for example. For years I could never read more than 5 pages without falling asleep, and I understood none of it. Then I watched a lot of those Discovery channel shows, and it all started to make sense. NOW I read 30 pages before falling asleep.