The power to be curious and ask questions

A few days ago I was asked to write an entry for this blog, something I personally consider a great honor! However, if I'm honest, I had no idea what I meant. I thought about a lot of great and crazy scientific ideas, about insects or even about Covid -19, but then, I realized that we all need something fun and that every subject I was thinking about had two common skills: curiosity and questioning.

 

Have you noticed how curiosity drives us? Since we were born, it's part of our nature. When we are babies, human beings are curious about what surrounds them: What is that sound? What's that feeling? What's the taste? How does this work? Why did this happen?

As we grow, our scope and perspective change, but these aspects are never forgotten. As children we ask ourselves about our environment, while as adolescents we ask about emotions, and although as adults, most of us try to avoid asking too many questions we do it without realizing it.

 

Remember your science classes when you were in primary school and your teacher told you about something known as a scientific method? A well-known step by step to do science. Let's bring it back: It all starts with a problem and a question, which of course you want to solve. Based on these, you ask yourself about it and you elaborate your hypotheses and predictions. You even propose an experiment or methodology to prove that hypothesis you built. Depending on the results, you analyze and choose to try again with a new methodology or draw a conclusion. Sounds familiar?

 

Every day we ask ourselves questions, we are curious about a particular subject, situation or event. We wondered about it and found a way to prove it. Finally, the results obtained lead us to create a conclusion! Let's make it more real, imagine you like someone and wonder if you like that person or not. So, create an "excuse" for a conversation with this person. As time passes and depending on the reactions this person has, you can conclude that whether he likes you or not.

 

Let's try another stage. Imagine you just had an amazing dinner with your family at one of your favorite restaurants, your parents ask you if you want to eat a dessert and your mind automatically comes up with the following question: should I take it or not? Would it be good for me? Or on other occasions, should I buy a chocolate cake or an ice cream? In this scenario, as you see, you made all the steps of scientific methodology. You were curious, asked questions, and based on what you chose, you tried one or the other.

This experience leads you to tell in the end whether your choice was good or not, or whether it had a positive or negative result, even if the chocolate cake was a good choice or not!

So, science is everywhere and we don't even realize, probably the reason is because we are used to believing that science is only for the scientific community and, here comes my opinion: It is for all and it is made by all!

So, the next time you ask yourself about something, you recognize your curiosity and the scientific process you're automatically developing. Let the day to day surprise you and, most importantly, have fun while you do it (always try the chocolate cake).