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TEDx Talks
Published: 2015-10-19
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VBxgRXw8heg
in the twenty first century traditional definitions of who scientists are and what science is are being bent and my guest himself a chemist is very excited about this let's listen now to doctor Dwight Randall tell us about this new revolution in science and what we can do to support it tonight I'd like to start simply by asking you a question what color is my shirt I
hear blew over here I hear green over here well when I was growing up color is this sure talk to me is yellow they taught me that this shirt was yellow well I could talk tonight because we have that same problem with scientists people who major in the science field science technology engineering and mathematics are taught all their career all their educational career that there are
limited choices for them medicine dentistry research well what about students who weren't majored in science technology engineering and mathematics who are not interested in working in a hospital a laboratory or doing research well this is the image of scientists that you probably have in your mind right now these are giants of science in the nineteenth and twentieth century and there's something interesting about this photograph this
collection of pictures shows men who worked alone in the laboratories they didn't collaborate they made their contributions to science and sure they change the world but they were a homogeneous group of individuals science today looks very different from that times today if a heterogeneous group with collaboration that happens across the globe science touches every part of our world every part of our economy both domestically and
internationally science passive the change everyone's life there's one thing about science that everyone knows it is the sure fire way to get rich well I'm only partly joking about that the New York Times did a survey of the one percenters you know who the one percent of our don't you well the New York Times did a survey of the one percenters and they found that fifteen
percent of them major instant careers when they were in college so it is a chance that you can make a lot of money in science but I'm here to tell you not to chase the money I'm here to tell you this chase your dreams because chasing money if a lot like chasing the horizon and never quite catch it the more you get the more you want
it's kinda like chocolate in that way so while I ask you not to chase money I urge you to replace the chase the pursuit of money with the pursuit of your right bit look at this individual this brave firefighter she's ready to battle the inferno she has on all of the equipment it takes to protect her against the flames but there's a problem none of that
equipment fixed her so it will do nothing to protect her she does not have the right fit with this protective clothing then there's nothing wrong with a career in research in medicine and dentistry that many science major students go into there's nothing wrong with that I'm here to say that uses seek your right fit the right fit for you so let's take a little diversion now
I play a game that I like to call find the scientists I'm going to show you a picture of a few scientists in my life you to pick out the fact is among the pictures got it ready okay let's go let's play find the scientist it's one of these individuals if the fine I hear a over here do I hear a yes I still be right
there see I have seen this site is among this group if Haiti Lamar she was a nineteen forties era movie star and she was also a scientist she invented something that you probably have on your person at this moment she invented the technology that allows cellular communication between all of us without who have cellphones who print wirelessly in your home she invented a technology that's called
cigna hopping and that is the basis of what all cellular communication all wireless communication and it was Hey Lamar that has the patent for that technology so let's play this again not you know how this game works let's play it again let's play find the scientist you're ready I call this round to round two here's your group of pictures now find the scientist among this group
okay is it ABC are de I hear a lot of both with the only fat Awlaki see over here well I can inspect the deck this time this time all of these a scientist all of these people a scientist and what is unique about them if they found a way to match the love for science in the pursuit of something that they are passionate about this
tape Jane Kim for example she is a scientist that is also interested in conservation so what she does is travel the country she paints murals mirrors on the pass a migratory animals so that people who own those path when the animals are not there know that it is a special place to help preserve that and make it precious for the animals who use that path to
migrate so these are all scientists and now I think I've proven that it's time for us to update our image of what a scientist is one thing I find is really good at in that is quantitation putting a number on something been able to measure and track it from time to time see it's changed over time matters of the heart don't typically been themselves to quantitation
matters of the heart a more difficult for example if I asked you how much you love your significant other your mother your daughter your son your mom what would you tell me you probably would not say well above them about fifteen percent less than I did yesterday you would do that we because we all quantitate that matters of the heart a difficult to quantitate or is
it there are there is a whole industry that's built up around quantitate in love these companies match people who have similar profound it's based on a series of questions each question has a score in a match people up there have the similar scores that shows the compatibility and they are mathematician statisticians demographer's neurosciences behaviorist finding ways to understand what humans call love cannot imagine that they
want to find a way that they could take their passion for their side in the passion for helping humanity and blend in the two and they did it with the services there is a mathematician at the heart every day now let's but we're back to this pick picture concern in the right fit and you may be asking me what is the value of a right fit
well next examine that a little closer the value of three here's a grand piano a grand piano sells for about a thirty thousand dollars in my hands in the never be worth more than that but put it in the hands of long long a world class pianist it becomes valued at twenty million dollars annually revenue for this are he found his passion he found his right
fit time let's take ten seconds what can you do intense second pick a simply a latte check your Twitter feed well put that ten seconds in the hands of you saying both and you become the world's fastest man and what's more you could be worth an estimated thirty million dollars ten seconds a basketball a basketball sells for about thirty nine dollars in my head is it
to be worth about a Buck fifty put it in the hands of Michael Jordan and you knew where I was going with this you put it in the hands of Michael Jordan it becomes worth over a billion dollars in network Michael Jordan found his right I'm here to ask you to see your right fit and the right fit for you a question that many people ask
well what is my right how do I know what my right fetuses that's the easiest question of all this is your right fit what makes you feel like this but they let you stay up late to do but then you get up early to do but the the consumes your fault would you away from it the thing that you can't wait to get back to that
thing that you give your time your money your comfort for that is your right fit and I say pursue your right fit we give you the here is an image of a flower a flower that's growing in rock it's everyone knows their flowers don't grow in rock but I'm managing that one day the seeds found themselves among the rocks and they had two choices give up
I grow and they did that thing that they owned the only thing that they could do and that was to grow they grow by of all of the obstacles admitting they would deprive the water of of nutrition sunlight nexus of community that we found will win in the familiar setting the seas had not of that and they probably didn't know what they would ultimately become and
yet they had to grow will you may have seen have rock around you right now there are some when they said that when you want to be an engineer you too tall to be an engineer are you too short to be a medical doctor well your grades aren't good enough to be a scientist those are the rocks in your and I say that you should do
just like that flowered make that decision to grow and you will spend tomorrow and tomorrow's tomorrow's and all of the tomorrows of your life in the phone takes your journey now there's not much that I could do with a piano ten seconds or basketball but I'm a chemistry teacher at the Dallas County community college district you give me a group of students a classroom of students
