What Science Means to Me

Before I joined the Army, before I became a bonafide science nerd, I was a literature student -you can infer whatever you want with that information. I feel compelled to reveal that despite having written a paper on Bartleby the Scrivener, I've never finished Melville's opus Moby Dick. I read enough to have a favorite sentence stick in my mind, though. It is not the famous first, "Call me Ishmael." It is the fourth:

Whenever I find myself growing grim about the mouth; whenever it is damp, drizzly November in my soul; whenever I find myself involuntarily pausing before coffin warehouses, and bringing up the rear of every funeral I meet: and especially whenever my hypos gets such an upper hand of me, that it requires a strong moral principal to prevent me from deliberately stepping into the street, and methodically knocking people's hats off - then, I account it high time to get to sea as soon as I can.

If you're like me, you might be wondering, "What the hell is hypos?" A quick Googling will give a couple of hits. Hypoglycemic? Well maybe the confusion associated with being in this state. Hyposulphite? No, that's now referred to as thiosulphate. Perhaps you're one who already knows it means, "a morbid depression of spirit". - Isn't that beautiful? (If each of these suppositions was accompanied with a strong sense of I don't give a shit you should probably stop reading now.) Also, you might wonder what any of this have to do with science. Hint: it doesn't have anything to do with the taxonomy of whales.
It was my own sense of this feeling which Ishmael describes that led me to join the Army in 2000. I was sick of explaining to counselors that a literature degree was not an English degree and that their university studies program didn't apply to me since I was also on a separate education track. Besides, I didn't want to work in a restaurant or play the role of someone's punching bag for the rest of my life. Instead I wanted to live in Germany and perhaps pursue my other interest, medicine. (That "ER" really made me question my choice in not going straight to college. )
What I discovered through this dramatic restructuring of my life was that I really enjoyed time in Germany, providing care for people who truly needed my help and a previously unfelt desire to continue my education. My education ultimately didn't lead to a medical degree (see previous post), but it did cause me to uncover a love for science that I hadn't realized I harbored.
Science, in its various incarnations, has since filled my imagination. I want to spread my affection for science to others - the Theatre ZOO is one venue to have sprang from this drive. Friends and family sometimes laugh from my presentation of correlations concerning practically everything around us. I "see" physics in light and water and sound everywhere I go. I consider biology wherever I go and have been found recording birds on my phone or staring at tree structure while at military trainings. I get defensive about topics concerning education spending and delivery, evolution and even space exploration.
Since I am not currently a science practitioner, I must be content with being an enthusiast.
Below is a short list of specific examples to illustrate the impact science has made on my thoughts.
Bio 102 - Though I took a lot of other, higher level Biology courses, my first and one of the fondest memories and impacts came from talking genetics in this early course. My professor, Lesley Blair, started each class with music. She wore vests and laughed a lot at life. She ranked better than any of the professors for the "serious" courses. For our genetics lab, we were each given a set of numbers and could only "mate" with others that fit into a certain range. It was initially an awkward, high school memory-inducing period, but it was also funny and informative. Once the males in the class got over the whole homoerotic aspect, people loosened up and tried to get better mates. In the end we learned how species divergence happens - a topic I further explored through evolution. During that time I looked at my children differently. As parents, we often find ourselves staring at our kids in a way one is not permitted to do so in polite society, but this gave me a new filter. "Where did those dimples come from?" It was no longer merely a matter of he has your hair or your eyes or skin tone. My ears have been more tuned in to certain subjects on the news. Genetic links to personality, friends and political affiliations have been found and discussed a lot lately. I learned more information in my actual genetics course, but it was trying to hook-up with a mate in lab that really started my understanding and interest in the subject.
BB 541 - The summer that I was taking my biochemistry series, my wife and I were expecting our third son. We were approaching the due date and I was approaching a midterm. During the summer sessions OSU packs a ten-week course into four weeks, so one doesn't want to miss any classes since so much is covered each day. The professor was an intelligent, though socially inept, individual who looked like Kenny Rogers and once got lost in his own example of protein folding. He was discussing amino acid synthesis. I imagined these described microscopic interactions taking place at an exponential rate inside my wife, adding layers of proteins to skin, bones and muscles, developing lungs that would soon breathe air and a gut that would need food. I told my professor of the upcoming event and he readily excused me from the exam in case it happened on a class day. I think it was that very evening as I was about to go to work that my wife suggested I come home instead. Though I don't remember the specifics about the lesson, I do remember the images - ala Hollywood - of our growing child streaming across the screen of my mind.
ST 351 - I really didn't care much for Statistics.

Statistics

It wasn't very difficult or anything, it's simply that it was bullshit. Sure it's important and in the right hands can be used for good. However, as my friend wrote in my notebook during class, Stats = best guess. I did enjoy the number play and that is what I think about concerning the discipline. There was a regular customer who came into the restaurant I worked who had been an engineer and consequently loved both statistics and physics. Something had come across the news one day, I think it concerned Bush being a good president - I don't remember exactly what it was other than that it concerned Bush. Whatever it had been irritated him enough that he felt compelled to utilize his knowledge of statistics to figure out the intelligence of our populace. He posted his conclusions on a blog with all his data and pretty charts and graphs - he was an engineer, as I said. His findings using a mean IQ and typical Std Devs ultimately showed that most people were morons. It was completely manipulated and biased and funny as hell.
PH 201 - I'll be brief concerning physics. Much of the field is admittedly beyond me, though I maintain a respect and awe of the subject. I imagine arrows in light rays and the forces that cause water to roll over itself. In a nutshell, everything looks different to me now.
These are only a few examples, but the give a good sense of how science has since impacted my viewpoint. I still read as though it's my sustenance, but now fiction is interspersed with books about mathematics, biology, chemistry and physics. I don't find that there is a disparity between these two aspects of my interests. The answer to the question from above, how my interaction with Moby Dick plays into science is simply this; I want to know things that others may not care about. Reading has generated a love for the stories of life and science has enriched my understanding. Each is a kind of investigation; one is for the emotional world and the other is for the physical world. I still battle my own hypos, especially in this economic environment, but I feel that someday, with the knowledge I have gained, I will find my white whale. Until then, call me Ishmael.BI 445 - I took evolution as an elective while I was waiting for a military course I needed to attend after graduation. I really don't understand why this is not a mandatory class for every science student. I'm pretty sure that the straight Biology students needed it, but it wasn't required for the general science, pre-med or nursing tracks. I know it's touched on in general biology and then one takes genetics (which is also touched upon), but one doesn't get the richness of the subject until one attends a dedicated course. This class affected me as much because of my background (see previous post again) as anything else. It was like getting stitches taken out. I no longer had to support it with such rudimentary understanding, I could now support it with college credit to back up my support. Speciation is my favorite aspect. Perhaps I think of it as a type of relationship where individuals ultimately part ways because of differing interests and paths. I don't know. Maybe it's enabled me to rebel even more against my childhood. Maybe it just made sense to me. Whatever it is, I now look at the life around me through a different set of eyes.
Enjoy the Show!