Us explicaré una història.
Let me tell you a story.
Sóc un professor de ciències novell a secundària, estic il·lusionat. I em deixo la pell preparant les classes. Però poc a poc m'adono que, per desgràcia, els meus alumnes potser no han après res.
It's my first year as a new high school science teacher, and I'm so eager. I'm so excited, I'm pouring myself into my lesson plans. But I'm slowly coming to this horrifying realization that my students just might not be learning anything.
Resulta que un dia els vaig fer llegir un capítol del llibre sobre el meu tema preferit de la biologia: els virus i com ataquen. I estic tan emocionat parlant-ne amb ells i pregunto: "Algú en pot explicar les idees principals i dir per què és tan genial?"
This happens one day: I'd just assigned my class to read this textbook chapter about my favorite subject in all of biology: viruses and how they attack. And so I'm so excited to discuss this with them, and I come in and I say, "Can somebody please explain the main ideas and why this is so cool?"
Silenci. Finalment, la meva alumna preferida em mira als ulls i diu: "El text és una merda." I llavors va aclarir: "Ja m'entens,
There's silence. Finally, my favorite student, she looks me straight in the eye, and she says, "The reading sucked." (Laughter)
no vull dir que sigui una merda, sinó que no he entès res. És avorrit. A qui li importa? I és una merda."
And then she clarified. She said, "You know what, I don't mean that it sucks. I mean I didn't understand a word of it. It's boring, who cares, and it sucks."
Veig somriures còmplices per tota l'aula i m'adono que tots els meus alumnes pensen el mateix. Potser han pres apunts o han memoritzat definicions, però no han entès els conceptes bàsics. Cap no em dirà per què és tan genial o important.
(Laughter) These sympathetic smiles spread all throughout the room now, and I realize that all of my other students are in the same boat, that maybe they took notes or memorized definitions from the textbook, but not one of them really understood the main ideas. Not one of them can tell me why this stuff is so cool, why it's so important.
Estic del tot perdut. No sé què fer ara. I l'únic que se m'acut és dir: "A veure. Us explicaré una història. Els protagonistes de la història són els bacteris i els virus. Aquests estan ampliats 2 milions de cops. Els bacteris i virus reals són tan petits que no es poden veure sense un microscopi. I vosaltres segurament els coneixeu perquè us han posat malalts. Però el que molts no saben és que els virus també posen malalts els bacteris."
I'm totally clueless. I have no idea what to do next. So the only thing I can think of is say, "Listen. Let me tell you a story. The main characters in the story are bacteria and viruses. These guys are blown up a couple million times. The real bacteria and viruses are so small we can't see them without a microscope, and you guys might know bacteria and viruses because they both make us sick. But what a lot of people don't know is that viruses can also make bacteria sick."
La història que explico als meus alumnes comença com una història de por. "Hi havia una vegada un bacteri petit i feliç. No li agafeu gaire afecte. Potser està flotant en el vostre estómac o en algun menjar podrit i de sobte no es troba gaire bé. Potser ha menjat alguna cosa dolenta. I passa una cosa terrible perquè se li estripa la pell i veu tot de virus que li surten de dins. I és més terrible encara quan explota i un exèrcit de virus emergeix de dins seu. Sí, fa mala pinta. Si veus això i ets un bacteri, és el teu pitjor malson. Però si ets un virus i ho veus, creues aquestes cametes i penses: "Molem." Perquè és una feinada infectar un bacteri. Així és com es fa. Un virus s'agafa a un bacteri i li injecta el seu ADN. Llavors, l'ADN del virus fa coses i trosseja l'ADN del bacteri. I quan s'ha desfet de l'ADN del bacteri, l'ADN del virus pren control de la cèl·lula i li diu que comenci a fabricar virus. Perquè l'ADN és com un plànol que diu què s'ha de fer. Això és com entrar en una fàbrica de cotxes i substituir els plànols per plànols de robots assassins. Els treballadors vénen l'endemà i fan la feina, però segueixen instruccions diferents. Per això canviar l'ADN del bacteri el converteix en una fàbrica de virus. Bé, fins que està tan ple de virus que explota. Però aquesta no és l'única manera de fer-ho. Hi ha un procés més elaborat.
Now, the story that I start telling my kids, it starts out like a horror story. Once upon a time, there's this happy little bacterium. Don't get too attached to him. (Laughter) Maybe he's floating around in your stomach or in some spoiled food somewhere, and all of a sudden, he starts to not feel so good. Maybe he ate something bad for lunch. And then things get really horrible, as his skin rips apart, and he sees a virus coming out from his insides. And then it gets horrible when he bursts open and an army of viruses floods out from his insides. "Ouch" is right. If you see this, and you're a bacterium, this is like your worst nightmare. But if you're a virus and you see this, you cross those little legs of yours and you think, "We rock." Because it took a lot of crafty work to infect this bacterium. Here's what had to happen. A virus grabbed onto a bacterium and it slipped its DNA into it. The next thing is that virus DNA made stuff that chopped up the bacteria DNA. And now that we've gotten rid of the bacteria DNA, the virus DNA takes control of the cell and it tells it to start making more viruses. Because, you see, DNA is like a blueprint that tells living things what to make. So this is kind of like going into a car factory and replacing the blueprints with blueprints for killer robots. The workers still come the next day, they do their job, but they're following different instructions. So replacing the bacteria DNA with virus DNA turns the bacteria into a factory for making viruses -- that is, until it's so filled with viruses that it bursts. But that's not the only way that viruses infect bacteria. Some are much more crafty.
Quan un virus agent secret infecta un bacteri, espia una mica. Aquí el virus agent secret posa el seu ADN dins del bacteri, però, alerta! No fa res dolent. No d'entrada. Només s'infiltra silenciosament en l'ADN del bacteri i s'hi queda infiltrat com un terrorista esperant instruccions. El més interessant és que quan el bacteri tingui fills aquests també tindran l'ADN del virus. Així que tenim una gran família de bacteris plena d'agents infiltrats. I viuen feliços fins que hi ha un senyal i BAM! L'ADN s'allibera, pren el control de les cèl·lules, les converteix en fàbriques de virus i exploten. Una família de bacteris enorme mor mentre els virus els surten de les entranyes. Els virus vencen els bacteris. Ara ja enteneu com els virus ataquen les cèl·lules. Hi ha dues maneres. A l'esquerra hi ha el que anomenem la via lítica, quan els virus prenen el control directament. A la dreta hi ha la via lisogènica, que utilitza el virus agent secret.
(Laughter) When a secret agent virus infects a bacterium, they do a little espionage. Here, this cloaked, secret agent virus is slipping his DNA into the bacterial cell, but here's the kicker: It doesn't do anything harmful -- not at first. Instead, it silently slips into the bacteria's own DNA, and it just stays there like a terrorist sleeper cell, waiting for instructions. And what's interesting about this is now, whenever this bacteria has babies, the babies also have the virus DNA in them. So now we have a whole extended bacteria family, filled with virus sleeper cells. They're just happily living together until a signal happens and bam! -- all of the DNA pops out. It takes control of these cells, turns them into virus-making factories, and they all burst, a huge, extended bacteria family, all dying with viruses spilling out of their guts, the viruses taking over the bacterium. So now you understand how viruses can attack cells. There are two ways: On the left is what we call the lytic way, where the viruses go right in and take over the cells. On the [right] is the lysogenic way that uses secret agent viruses.
No és tan complicat, oi? I ara tots ho enteneu. Si teniu el batxillerat, és quasi segur que ja ho havíeu vist abans, però presentat d'una manera que no se us quedava al cap.
So this stuff is not that hard, right? And now all of you understand it. But if you've graduated from high school, I can almost guarantee you've seen this information before. But I bet it was presented in a way that it didn't exactly stick in your mind. So when my students were first learning this,
I per què els meus estudiants d'entrada odiaven tant aquest tema? Bé, hi ha dos motius.
why did they hate it so much? Well, there were a couple of reasons.
Primer, us asseguro que els llibres de text no tenen virus agents secrets ni històries de por. I és que en les ciències estan obsessionats amb la serietat. Em supera. De debò. Jo vaig treballar per una editorial escolar. Com a escriptor em prohibien fer servir històries, llenguatge atractiu o res divertit perquè llavors no semblava un llibre "seriós" i "científic". Ho veieu? Perquè Déu va prohibir que fos divertit aprendre ciència. I la ciència de debò va de materials viscosos i canvis de color. Fixeu-vos-hi bé. I, evidentment, tot bon científic ha de tenir explosions! Però si un llibre de text sembla massa divertit, no sembla científic.
First of all, I can guarantee you you that their textbooks didn't have secret agent viruses, and they didn't have horror stories. You know, in the communication of science, there is this obsession with seriousness. It kills me. I'm not kidding. I used to work for an educational publisher, and as a writer, I was always told never to use stories or fun, engaging language, because then my work might not be viewed as "serious" and "scientific." I mean, because God forbid somebody have fun when they're learning science. So we have this field of science that's all about slime and color changes. Check this out. And then we have, of course, as any good scientist has to have ... explosions! But if a textbook seems too much fun, it's somehow unscientific.
El segon problema és que el llenguatge dels llibres de text és incomprensible. Si volem resumir la història d'abans, podem començar dient: "Els virus fan còpies d'ells mateixos introduint el seu ADN dins d'un bacteri." Al llibre de text apareixia una cosa com aquesta: "La replicació bacteriòfaga s'inicia mitjançant la introducció d'àcid nucleic viral dins d'un bacteri." Fantàstic. Ideal per a nens de 13 anys.
Now another problem was that the language in their textbook was truly incomprehensible. If we want to summarize that story that I told you earlier, we could start by saying, "These viruses make copies of themselves by slipping their DNA into a bacterium." The way this showed up in the textbook, it looked like this: "Bacteriophage replication is initiated through the introduction of viral nucleic acid into a bacterium." That's great, perfect for 13-year-olds.
Aquí hi ha el problema. Un munt de gent del món educatiu veuria això i diria que no es pot donar als estudiants perquè no és del tot precís en alguns detalls. Per exemple, us he dit que el virus tenen ADN, però una minúscula part no en tenen. Tenen el que s'anomena ARN. I un redactor de ciències professional ho marcaria: "Canvia això. Hem de posar una cosa molt més tècnica." I després un equip d'editors revisaria aquesta explicació tan simple i hi trobaria pegues a quasi cada paraula i haurien de canviar tot el que no fos prou seriós i canviarien tot el que no fos 100% perfecte. Llavors seria precís, però seria del tot impossible d'entendre. I això és terrible.
But here's the thing: There are plenty of people in science education who would look at this and say there's no way that we could ever give that to students, because it contains some language that isn't completely accurate. For example, I told you that viruses have DNA. Well, a very tiny fraction of them don't. They have something called RNA instead. So a professional science writer would say, "That has to go. We have to change it to something much more technical." And after a team of professional science editors went over this really simple explanation, they'd find fault with almost every word I've used, and they'd have to change anything that wasn't serious enough, and they'd have to change everything that wasn't 100 percent perfect. Then it would be accurate, but it would be completely impossible to understand. This is horrifying.
Us parlo d'aquesta idea d'explicar una història, però la comunicació científica es regeix pel que jo anomeno la <i>tirania de la precisió</i>, que no deixa explicar històries. És com si la ciència fos aquell narrador terrible que dóna detalls de coses que no interessen com ara "Per cert, vaig dinar amb una amiga i portava uns texans horribles. De fet, no eren texans. Eren més aviat com malles. Potser eren un tipus de malles texanes, però crec que...". I tu penses "Déu meu! On vols anar a parar?" O pitjor. L'educació es convertirà en aquell que sempre diu "De fet..." Sabeu? Tu dius "Eh, col·lega, ens hem hagut de llevar en plena nit i conduir 100 km a les fosques." I aquell diu "De fet, eren 87,3 km." I tu penses "De fet, calla! Intento explicar-te una cosa."
You know, I keep talking about this idea of telling a story, and it's like science communication has taken on this idea of what I call the tyranny of precision, where you can't just tell a story. It's like science has become that horrible storyteller that we all know who gives us all the details nobody cares about, where you're like, "Oh, I met my friend for lunch the other day, and she was wearing these ugly jeans. I mean, they weren't really jeans, they were more like leggings, but I guess they're actually kind of more like jeggings, and you're just like, "Oh my God. What is the point?" Or even worse, science education is becoming like that guy who always says, "Actually." You want to be like, "Oh, dude, we had to get up in the middle of the night and drive a hundred miles in total darkness." And that guy's like, "Actually, it was 87.3 miles." And you're like, "Actually, shut up! I'm just trying to tell a story."
Perquè les bones narracions es basen en la connexió emocional. Hem de convèncer el públic que el que diem és important. Però és igual d'important saber quins detalls podem ometre i transmetre el concepte bàsic igualment. L'arquitecte Mies van der Rohe va dir, en altres paraules, que de vegades s'ha de mentir per poder dir la veritat. Crec que això és molt rellevant quan s'ensenya ciència.
Because good storytelling is all about emotional connection. We have to convince our audience that what we're talking about matters. But just as important is knowing which details we should leave out so that the main point still comes across. I'm reminded of what the architect Mies van der Rohe said, and I paraphrase, when he said that sometimes, you have to lie in order to tell the truth. I think this sentiment is particularly relevant to science education.
Per acabar, em decep molt quan la gent creu que defenso baixar el nivell de la ciència. Això no és pas cert. Estic fent un doctorat al MIT i entenc la importància dels detalls i la precisió en la comunicació científica entre experts, però no quan s'ensenya a nens de 13 anys. Que un nen pensi que tots els virus tenen ADN no destruirà el seu possible futur en la ciència. Però si un nen no entén res de la ciència i aprèn a odiar-la perquè tot sona com això, serà impossible que tingui èxit.
Now, finally, I am often so disappointed when people think that I'm advocating a dumbing down of science. That's not true at all. I'm currently a Ph.D. student at MIT, and I absolutely understand the importance of detailed, specific scientific communication between experts, but not when we're trying to teach 13-year-olds. If a young learner thinks that all viruses have DNA, that's not going to ruin their chances of success in science. But if a young learner can't understand anything in science and learns to hate it because it all sounds like this, that will ruin their chances of success.
Ho hem d'aturar. I m'agradaria que el canvi vingués de les institucions al capdamunt, que alimenten el problema. I els prego, els suplico, que ho aturin. Però no crec que ho facin. Per sort, tenim altres recursos, com l'Internet, amb què podem canviar les coses començant des de baix. Hi ha un nombre creixent de recursos en línia que es dediquen a explicar la ciència de manera senzilla i comprensible. Somio amb una web semblant a la Viquipèdia que expliqui qualsevol concepte científic en un llenguatge simple que qualsevol alumne entengui. Jo mateix dedico el meu temps lliure a fer vídeos de ciència que penjo a YouTube. Explico l'equilibri químic utilitzant analogies amb estranys balls d'escola i parlo de les piles de combustible amb històries de nois i noies de campaments. Els comentaris que rebo sovint tenen faltes i estan plens d'icones, tot i així, són tan positius i agraïts que sé que aquesta és la manera com s'hauria de comunicar la ciència.
This needs to stop ... and I wish that the change could come from the institutions at the top that are perpetuating these problems, and I beg them, I beseech them to just stop it. But I think that's unlikely. So we are so lucky that we have resources like the Internet, where we can circumvent these institutions from the bottom up. There's a growing number of online resources that are dedicated to just explaining science in simple, understandable ways. I dream of a Wikipedia-like website that would explain any scientific concept you can think of in simple language any middle schooler can understand. And I myself spend most of my free time making these science videos that I put on YouTube. I explain chemical equilibrium using analogies to awkward middle school dances, and I talk about fuel cells with stories about boys and girls at a summer camp. The feedback that I get is sometimes misspelled and it's often written in LOLcats, (Laughter) but nonetheless, it's so appreciative, so thankful that I know this is the right way we should be communicating science.
Però encara hi ha molta feina a fer i si teniu cap relació amb la ciència, us animo a fer com jo. Agafeu una càmera, escriviu un blog, el que sigui, però no sigueu seriosos, oblideu l'argot. Feu-me riure. Feu-ho interessant. Prescindiu dels detallets que no interessen i aneu al gra. Com hauríeu de começar? Podríeu dir: "A veure. Us explicaré una història."
There's still so much work left to be done, though, and if you're involved with science in any way, I urge you to join me. Pick up a camera, start to write a blog, whatever, but leave out the seriousness, leave out the jargon. Make me laugh. Make me care. Leave out those annoying details that nobody cares about and just get to the point. How should you start? Why don't you say, "Listen, let me tell you a story."
Gràcies.
Thank you.
[aplaudiments]