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Teach Science: Giving Back

00:00:15;17 So, I'm here to give a pitch for teaching.
00:00:19;22 And, the reason that I want to do that is that every person I know who's a scientist
00:00:24;26 is a scientist at least in part because they've had one or more inspirational teachers.
00:00:30;17 Someone who sort of opened their eyes, made them understand what science is,
00:00:35;12 why scientists do it, why it's so important for the world, how exciting it could be.
00:00:40;12 And so, my claim is that you've got to pay your way.
00:00:43;23 If people did this for you, you have to do this for other people.
00:00:47;24 That scientists... I think most of the world... we get things from people.
00:00:53;14 When we pay them back, we often pay back to different people
00:00:55;04 who gave us stuff in the beginning,
00:00:56;18 and so the best we can do for our teachers is say,
00:00:59;16 "Thank you so much, you were great, you were wonderful, you inspired me."
00:01:02;24 But the way we pay the world back is we teach other people, and we inspire them.
00:01:07;04 So, that's one reason that I think everyone who aspires to be a scientist
00:01:12;01 should aspire to teach science too.
00:01:15;17 And the second reason is a selfish reason.
00:01:19;00 The reason I just gave you, if you like, is a generous reason.
00:01:21;00 The selfish one is people will tell you that you don't understand something...
00:01:26;13 You don't know you've understood something until you've taught it.
00:01:29;25 Lots of people hear that, and they're like "Yes, yes, yes, this is a ruse to get me to teach."
00:01:34;24 And people believe that, until one night, at 3 o'clock in the morning,
00:01:38;04 with a lecture facing them at 10 o'clock the same morning,
00:01:41;14 and they're putting slides together, and they're fiddling around on their computer,
00:01:45;20 and they're looking at the slide, and they're like,
00:01:47;28 "Wait. I don't understand how this works."
00:01:50;25 Then there's this moment of panic that 7 hours later,
00:01:54;09 you're going to have to stand up in front of an audience,
00:01:57;04 be it high school students, undergraduates, people's moms and dads,
00:02:01;05 and explain how something works, and you've just realized
00:02:04;04 that you have questions that you can't answer.
00:02:06;01 And that's what the next seven hours are for.
00:02:08;18 And what you learn in those seven hours is going to help you, not just for that lecture.
00:02:12;04 It's going to help you with your research, your work,
00:02:14;07 your understanding of a scientific world that you're trying to be part of.
00:02:17;27 The next reason, which is also selfish,
00:02:20;23 is every scientist who ends up running a research laboratory
00:02:24;02 needs people in that laboratory to help them do science.
00:02:27;12 The way you attract those people is by meeting them,
00:02:32;18 by talking to them, by teaching them, so that when you stand up
00:02:36;17 and you give a talk at a scientific meeting,
00:02:38;18 or a classroom, or wherever, at some level, this is an advertisement.
00:02:42;18 You're advertising, "I do interesting stuff. Come and work with me."
00:02:46;25 Give a crappy lecture or a crappy lesson, people will be like,
00:02:51;16 "Actually, I don't think so. There are other people who look more attractive."
00:02:54;26 Give an inspiring, clear, interesting lecture,
00:02:58;16 and people will go, "I want to work for that person."
00:03:02;02 And the last reason, in a sense, is selfish too.
00:03:06;07 We get paid by the public to do what we do.
00:03:10;10 When I go to a cocktail party and someone comes up, and says, "Hi, how are you?"
00:03:14;03 if I say I'm a scientist, people instantly give me this sort of excited, but terrified response,
00:03:19;20 "I think it's cool that you're a scientist, but I know that you're not going
00:03:24;00 "to successfully explain to me what you do,
00:03:26;09 "and you and I are both going to be embarrassed."
00:03:28;26 So, when people ask me what I do, I say I'm a money launderer.
00:03:32;25 They go, "No, you're not! You look much too respectable,
00:03:35;15 "and there are no drug dealers at this party!"
00:03:37;12 I go, "Sorry, I'm a money launderer."
00:03:40;08 And there's a little back and forth, as I try and convince people,
00:03:42;25 but in the end, they're like, "Ok, you're a money launderer. Whose money?"
00:03:47;06 And I go, "Yours. The average American family contributes about $140 per year
00:03:53;08 "to the National Institutes of Health, the people who support me
00:03:57;20 "and most of the scientists I know.
00:03:59;05 "So, I'm taking your money to do stuff. I owe you an explanation
00:04:03;10 "of what I'm doing with it, why I think it's so exciting,
00:04:06;13 "and I need to couch that explanation in words you understand."
00:04:09;27 If you're a scientist and you're thinking about that cocktail party,
00:04:13;04 what you think about most is like,
00:04:14;23 "Oh, it's so embarrassing, I failed to get the point across."
00:04:17;17 What you need to do is spend an hour sitting down, thinking about,
00:04:21;20 "Ok, I need a three sentence paragraph that will explain to people
00:04:26;15 "what I do in words that they can understand."
00:04:29;19 So, when people ask me what I do, I say,
00:04:31;26 "I work on how cells put their socks on before their shoes."
00:04:35;13 They're like, "No, they don't do that."
00:04:37;24 And, I say, "Well, they do something like that. When you get up in the morning,
00:04:40;25 "however tired or hungover, or crabby you feel,
00:04:44;29 "you can get the socks on before the shoes.
00:04:47;07 "You can make sure one thing gets done first before you start the second.
00:04:50;11 Cells do the same thing."
00:04:51;19 And if you say that, people are like, "I can understand this guy! This is interesting."
00:04:55;17 So, you just have to pay the world back. Teach. Explain. It's your job.

This Talk
Speaker: Andrew Murray
Audience:
  • Student
  • Researcher
Recorded: September 2011
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Talk Overview

Many scientists became scientists because they were influenced by an inspirational teacher. Murray argues that while this should be reason enough to teach, there are also other, more selfish, reasons. These include attracting good students to your lab, as well as being able to explain to someone you meet at a cocktail party what it is that you really do.

Speaker Bio

Andrew Murray

Andrew Murray

  Andrew Murray received his undergraduate education at Clare College, Cambridge and his Ph.D. from Harvard Medical School. He then spent 15 years at the University of California, San Francisco as a post-doctoral fellow and faculty member before returning to Harvard. Currently, Murray is a Professor of Molecular and Cellular Biology and co-director of the… Continue Reading

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