Dr. Alan R. Townsend is a scientist, author, speaker, and Dean of the Washington Franke School of Forestry and Conservation at the University of Montana. He was selected as an Aldo Leopold Leadership Fellow and a Google Science Communications Fellow. Let the science speak A documentary film series that premiered at the TriBeCa TV Festival in September 2018.
Below, Alan shares five key insights from his new book. This Ordinary Stardust: A Scientist’s Journey from Sadness to WonderListen to the audio version, read by Alan himself, on the Next Big Idea app.
1. Science provides more than answers and solutions.
I once believed that science holds the key to almost every answer humanity seeks. Given enough time and effort, science can explain the Earth and ourselves, and can fairly predict what will happen next. Of course, science is full of miraculous solutions to human needs and challenges, and it has amazing predictive powers. Look around you and think about how almost any given day unfolds. Probably almost everything you see and do has a direct relationship to scientific discoveries.
Science can do all that and more, if we allow it to. Science can offer a way of living in the world. Its essence teaches us to detach from the ego, to wonder, to persevere through repeated failure, and to accept the things we cannot change. On many levels, these are life-saving skills. At its best, science is an act of deep care and empathy, a way to express all that is best about us: curiosity, compassion, altruism, for our loved ones and for millions of other people. Put more simply, science can be an act of love.
2. Grief is traumatic, and science can help us overcome it.
When my young daughter and wife were diagnosed with brain tumors within a year of each other, my world was torn apart. It changed the way I viewed science and myself. For a time, I was in a state of turmoil that was a tragedy in itself. I was depressed, angry, reactionary and self-centered, and often unable to step back and question or reflect.
“When our own time ends, we become part of countless stories the world has yet to write.”
Grief is the most powerful force I know, but thinking like a scientist has helped me find a way out of it. I’ve found solace in the fact that our atomic nature — the stardust inside all of us — is virtually immortal. The elements that hold us together carry countless stories across the arc of time. When our own time ends, we become part of countless stories the world has yet to write. Through this process, I’ve learned that some very basic habits that science seeks to instill — wonder at the world and accepting it as it is — can bring unexpected peace, even in the most difficult times.
3. Curiosity is medicine.
Even after millions of years of evolution, our incredible brains are still in a state of disarray. We’re hardwired to switch into fight-or-flight mode when faced with a stressor. It’s an understandable trait, considering that for most of human history, we had to be prepared to respond to threats like hungry lions and murderous neighbors. But we’re vulnerable to the more chronic, insidious stressors that often dominate our current lives. Stressors release a cocktail of chemicals that reduce our fluidity and wreak havoc internally.
But curiosity does the exact opposite. When we find ways to set aside stress and be curious — be it being curious about a phenomenon in nature or simply being curious about an upset coworker instead of being reactive — our brains relax and open up, and our bodies fill with good things in return. Curiosity is literally medicine that positions our bodies and behaviors in a healthier direction.
4. Butterflies can teach us something.
We like to tell stories about the world, but when it comes to our own lives, we have expectations, or at least strong desires, about how it should play out. We often look to science to reduce the inevitable uncertainty that surrounds us. We look to science to reduce threats and tell us the probability of what will happen next.
“Out of what seems like total destruction, a completely different and beautiful new existence can emerge.”
Through its science, the metamorphosis of the butterfly reminds us that while stories often don’t go as expected, unexpected miracles can still occur. As the caterpillar metamorphoses, it literally melts into mush. Within that mess (once thought to be an example of resurrection) are tiny cells that contain both the memories of the insect’s past and the seeds of its future. From what seems like total destruction, a completely different and beautiful new being is born.
We cannot grow forever, we cannot progress on this planet without destruction and loss, and we cannot predict or control every aspect of our destiny, but science shows us that all seemingly apocalyptic events are ultimately fleeting, many of which are followed by moments of unimaginable beauty.
5. Science is deeply rooted in humanity.
Like religion, science seeks comfort, explanation, and often control. Science is based on fundamental truths about how the world works, but it is also a lens through which humans view the world. This means that science is subject to our own weaknesses and failings. Many religious traditions preach humility and kindness, but they are still too often used to exclude, humiliate, and even kill. But sometimes science does too.
And yet the best scientists I know are obsessed with the passion of their work, and often driven by a desire to help people they will never meet. Like much of today’s dialogue, science is too often caricatured, oversimplified, and stripped of nuance and true humanity. I believe science is at its fullest when we neither demonize nor deify it, and do not demand perfection in order to trust it, both in our discoveries and in ourselves. Instead, we can see it in the same way that most religions define humanity: as fundamentally messy, striving to hopefully improve every day, and still capable of amazing miracles.
To hear the audio version read by author Alan Townsend, download the Next Big Idea app now.
