The role and impact of science on our daily lives have never been more significant.
Just this month, we learned the economic impact of lobstering in the Gulf of Maine has reached its highest levels ever and looks poised to give the long-established wood products industry a run for its money. Both these industries rely heavily on scientific research to help them advance, including understanding the ways climate change affects oceans and forests as well as the development of new products.
It’s not just knowledge for knowledge’s sake that makes science important to Maine. The economic impact of scientific pursuit can be hard to quantify, but there are a few measures we can look at. For just one example, we can look at biosciences. In 2013, Maine institutions, including The Jackson Laboratory, the University of Maine and the University of New England, received $72 million in funding from the National Institutes of Health. But bioscience research isn’t limited to these educational and nonprofit entities: In 2010, the most recent year for which data are available, there were 238 bioscience research-related businesses in Maine employing 6,253 people. This is connected to just one federal agency funding research in Maine.
However, unless you’re in the business of science and research, oftentimes the information that is critical to understanding the world around us is not always presented in a way that makes sense to non-Ph.D. scientists.
This is damaging to all of us. If we continue to believe science is not relevant to our lives or understandable to “regular people,” Maine will be hurt economically and in our daily lives. Just think of where we would be without life-saving antibiotics or cars with air bags. Now think of where we could be with personalized medicine, algae and/or wood used as a source of liquid fuel. Or think of some other area that is only a spark of an idea in a scientist’s mind right now and its potential future impact on our lives. If we don’t understand what science is and how it works, we’ll miss out on supporting and understanding all the ways it can be used to make our lives richer.
This weekend, from March 20 to 22, Mainers and others will celebrate the science all around us with the inaugural Maine Science Festival. There will be more than 45 free events and one headliner event, featuring Pixar Studios scientist Tony DeRose, which will offer a chance to explore science in the most fun and interesting way imaginable. These events will deepen our understanding of how science is all around us. From the Cross Insurance Center to the Bangor Public Library and various venues in between, there will be workshops, hands-on activities and panel discussions throughout the weekend, with some events only for kids, others for adults and a lot of events for all ages.
The idea behind the Maine Science Festival is to kindle public interest in scientific enterprise and discovery in Maine, encourage dialogue around scientific questions and restore a childlike sense of wonder about the world.
It is time for science to stop being perceived as only for scientists in labs, thus intimidating to so many adults. We need to get back to having everyone ask “why?” then turn to our scientists to help answer that question.
Kate Dickerson is founder and director of the Maine Science Festival. She is a research associate in the School of Economics at the University of Maine.