[Music]
today I’m going to be talking about
science and stereotypes and the start
off I have a question for you who is a
scientist now when I ask this question a
common figure normally comes to mind who
looks a lot like this
now if these figures are looking
familiar then you are not alone a lot of
kids would agree with you in 2000
researchers at Fermilab a particle
physics laboratory in Illinois as
seventh graders what is your perception
of this ubiquitous nerd overlord what
they found was that if you ask seventh
graders to draw their response to who is
a scientist they will draw an old white
guy who plays with chemicals indoors by
himself so it doesn’t really take an
Einstein to see that science has a bit
of an image problem in media science is
not portrayed as a career or calling it
is portrayed as a person you know him
well his name is the scientist and he
acupiont evey shows like the Big Bang
Theory
he is the owner of a gloomy attitude and
an imposing lab coat the awkward a kind
of adorable nerd and based on these
common themes of what we’ve seen so far
I think we can give it a go and
synthesize our own stereotypical
scientists using what I dub that build a
brainiac equation an equation which
neatly summarizes some of the trends
we’ve been seeing thus far social
awkwardness plus unruly hair plus lab
coat yields the scientist sound familiar
but if you had asked five-year-old me
who is a scientist I would have drawn a
very different picture as the child of
two scientists I had actually a
horrifyingly human peek into what a
scientist can
like to me scientists didn’t spend their
days in the lab wearing a lab coat they
would spend time outside in the garden
with family and friends although they
were in the lab they didn’t live the lab
rat stereotype 24/7 as a result what I
saw and learned from this was that
science was the way to change the world
and by ninth grade I knew I wanted in my
first step into science took the form of
a question how can I tell if a lettuce
plant will be red or green red plants
led us among them puppies serious
antioxidant punch thanks to a very
special plant pigment called
anthocyanins in Tosa annan which is
shown in the red leaf color here can
help offset the effects of malnutrition
today no world were 795 million people
worldwide are affected by food
insecurity and malnutrition red
vegetables have a very important and
prominent place in resolving that issue
alternative solutions like GMOs do exist
but they face a lot of international
scrutiny in order to improve the quality
of our diets food needs to be revised
from the farm up in order to solve this
urgent problem I took a look at a
different type of Agriculture called
traditional breeding traditional
breeding has several distinct advantages
the first being that it does not carry
the stigma of GMOs and then as a
sustainable and diversified way to feed
the world however like all solutions
traditional breeding is not without its
own set of disadvantages specifically it
being that it takes ten years to go from
a seed to a plant that you can sell in
the market this is not feasible in order
to be able to cater to increase in
global nutritive and consumer demands we
need to make better plants faster so how
do we make better plants faster well
based on my experience which really was
getting at the core of this question as
to how to make traditional breeding a
more sustainable agricultural model all
you really need is the revised build a
brainiac equation creativity plus grit
plus growth mindset yields science
one of my favorite parts of being a teen
scientist it’s not only do I get to
relentlessly churn out ideas and ask
some questions I also get to be creative
creativity is important because it’s
celebrating uncertainty through Play in
a scientist toolbox creativity is an
essential element because it allows you
to think in off-the-wall nonlinear ways
for example in my own research just the
set up of my experiment was pretty
off-the-wall I used something called a
PCR microplate a plastic plate which is
normally supposed to be completely
sterile with nothing growing in it for
my experiment I turned that idea on its
head a little bit
I took the Micra plate and I would put
seeds in it I would have lettuce plants
growing along with a host of molecular
mischief-makers like fungi and bacteria
however this wasn’t the only time when I
veered away from the lab standard in
order to get these plants to grow I had
to modify that micro plate I took a nail
clipper from home and I punched off the
bottoms of the wells after that I added
the seeds and I would nest the modified
micro plate on top of an unmodified
micro plate with my nested micro plate
made
I now need a way to grow the seats but
plant growth chambers cost thousands of
dollars I simply did not have in order
to ensure that the plants would be able
to grow successfully I took a plastic
zipper bag I put the nested micro plate
in the back and I let them grow as a
mini greenhouse in that way instead of
investing thousands of dollars in
equipment I simply couldn’t afford
without creativity the leap from using
PCR micro plates as a means to analyze
samples to use them as a means to make a
mini greenhouse would not have been
possible grits is also a very important
element in science because in science
that basically means skill times effort
squared grit makes a difference because
science can get pretty brutal in fact I
would say the type of grit you encounter
in a research lab is not that far
removed from the type of grit you would
encounter in a spaghetti western
although you’ll find more scientists
troubleshooting than sharpshooting basic
daily lab procedures require the same
amount of high-level intensity and
mental resilience in my personal
experience just designing the nested
micro plate model took a year and then
two years later still tweaking and still
improving at times the pace of my
research was torturous the obstacles
seemed never-ending the first time I
tried to actually grow the plants in the
micro plate they all died before the
seeds could germinate the water had
evaporated from the lower wells
resulting in a plate of dead plants not
to be deterred
I had to readjust my approach instead of
using water I used a gel that wouldn’t
evaporate however after that roadblock
was solved I had another hurdle in my
path I had to find a way to actually
track down the genes responsible for a
red leaf color and lettuce responsible
for anthocyanins when I looked at the
database however the data that should be
there was not there sequences were
nowhere to be found in order to actually
get access to the sequences I had to do
a lot of molecular footwork that
normally would not have been required
and took a lot longer than normal
although I could have been discouraged
by this I chose to to find it as a way
instead to hone my grid and my mental
resilience and intensity this rigorous
process would sometimes leave me feeling
like I want to give up would sometimes
make me feel like I wasn’t in control of
the experiment but sometimes some very
rare sometimes I found the answer I
needed to keep coming back to the lab
this intense process instilled in me an
appreciation for stick-to-itiveness and
self-control through this process I
learned that grit was the key instrument
that allowed me to turn an idea into
something actionable that can affect
change in other people’s lives
however grit isn’t alone to this a
growth mindset is also very important in
science a growth mindset can be defined
as exponential opportunity it makes a
difference because well no one knows
everything for an allegedly intelligent
species we don’t
a heck of a lot about why we’re here as
a lab where I work through a high school
internship program the bird s Bloomberg
Institute I am in a crowd of people who
are all experiencing the same battle
constantly dancing along the edge of
uncertainty where there are plenty of
questions not a lot of answers as you
can imagine this makes for a great
conversation starter I treasure the
conversations I have with innovative
minds from all ages and all backgrounds
for example two weeks ago I was
encountering a lot of problems more than
normal with my nested microplate model I
just didn’t know if the cells I wanted
were shedding and if I couldn’t obtain
DNA using the model well the entire
point was moot all the work I had done
would have been for nothing when I
shared my troubles with a researcher he
showed me how to use a fluorescence
microscope suddenly it would allow me to
tag the cells and then visually verify
if their presence was there or not
through his help I was unable to
continue my research to increase the
concentration of DNA in the walls and to
make my research easier to replicate by
other scientists the creative processes
that you see in the lab made an
excellent incubator for my ideas as a
teen who is very familiar with the idea
of empty creativity of having ideas but
not enough money or mentorship to see
that idea through the resource is an
openness at the lab makes it feel like
an oasis to me every day I go into the
lab taking comfort in the fact the story
of scientific inquiry is never-ending
and I will always be able to refresh
renew and retool in my research a growth
mindset made a difference because it
allowed me to find truth when there was
no pre-existing road map throughout my
time I was there at home at school or in
the lab three key qualities gave me the
inspiration and direction to find my
passion in science creativity grits and
a growth mindset as modeled by my
parents my peers teachers and my lab
colleagues
his key traits allow me to see science
as more than just the scientist in fact
over the course of my lifetime science
has rapidly increased its inclusivity
and its diversity between 1970 and
present the proportion of female stem
workers has increased from 14 to 41
percent nationally and for non-white
stem workers it has increased by 23
percent at the brew Cass Bloomberg
Institute where I work 42 percent of the
researchers are female and 55 percent of
the researchers are non-white when we
defy these stereotypes that limit our
ability to innovate and to think
creatively we open up our limitless
scientific potential the time to retire
the scientist is now although more work
needs to be done to engage and enable
minorities in science the new and
changing face of scientific inquiry is
united by three common denominators
creativity grit and a growth mindset
[Applause]
[Music]
you
today I’m going to be talking about
science and stereotypes and the start
off I have a question for you who is a
scientist now when I ask this question a
common figure normally comes to mind who
looks a lot like this
now if these figures are looking
familiar then you are not alone a lot of
kids would agree with you in 2000
researchers at Fermilab a particle
physics laboratory in Illinois as
seventh graders what is your perception
of this ubiquitous nerd overlord what
they found was that if you ask seventh
graders to draw their response to who is
a scientist they will draw an old white
guy who plays with chemicals indoors by
himself so it doesn’t really take an
Einstein to see that science has a bit
of an image problem in media science is
not portrayed as a career or calling it
is portrayed as a person you know him
well his name is the scientist and he
acupiont evey shows like the Big Bang
Theory
he is the owner of a gloomy attitude and
an imposing lab coat the awkward a kind
of adorable nerd and based on these
common themes of what we’ve seen so far
I think we can give it a go and
synthesize our own stereotypical
scientists using what I dub that build a
brainiac equation an equation which
neatly summarizes some of the trends
we’ve been seeing thus far social
awkwardness plus unruly hair plus lab
coat yields the scientist sound familiar
but if you had asked five-year-old me
who is a scientist I would have drawn a
very different picture as the child of
two scientists I had actually a
horrifyingly human peek into what a
scientist can
like to me scientists didn’t spend their
days in the lab wearing a lab coat they
would spend time outside in the garden
with family and friends although they
were in the lab they didn’t live the lab
rat stereotype 24/7 as a result what I
saw and learned from this was that
science was the way to change the world
and by ninth grade I knew I wanted in my
first step into science took the form of
a question how can I tell if a lettuce
plant will be red or green red plants
led us among them puppies serious
antioxidant punch thanks to a very
special plant pigment called
anthocyanins in Tosa annan which is
shown in the red leaf color here can
help offset the effects of malnutrition
today no world were 795 million people
worldwide are affected by food
insecurity and malnutrition red
vegetables have a very important and
prominent place in resolving that issue
alternative solutions like GMOs do exist
but they face a lot of international
scrutiny in order to improve the quality
of our diets food needs to be revised
from the farm up in order to solve this
urgent problem I took a look at a
different type of Agriculture called
traditional breeding traditional
breeding has several distinct advantages
the first being that it does not carry
the stigma of GMOs and then as a
sustainable and diversified way to feed
the world however like all solutions
traditional breeding is not without its
own set of disadvantages specifically it
being that it takes ten years to go from
a seed to a plant that you can sell in
the market this is not feasible in order
to be able to cater to increase in
global nutritive and consumer demands we
need to make better plants faster so how
do we make better plants faster well
based on my experience which really was
getting at the core of this question as
to how to make traditional breeding a
more sustainable agricultural model all
you really need is the revised build a
brainiac equation creativity plus grit
plus growth mindset yields science
one of my favorite parts of being a teen
scientist it’s not only do I get to
relentlessly churn out ideas and ask
some questions I also get to be creative
creativity is important because it’s
celebrating uncertainty through Play in
a scientist toolbox creativity is an
essential element because it allows you
to think in off-the-wall nonlinear ways
for example in my own research just the
set up of my experiment was pretty
off-the-wall I used something called a
PCR microplate a plastic plate which is
normally supposed to be completely
sterile with nothing growing in it for
my experiment I turned that idea on its
head a little bit
I took the Micra plate and I would put
seeds in it I would have lettuce plants
growing along with a host of molecular
mischief-makers like fungi and bacteria
however this wasn’t the only time when I
veered away from the lab standard in
order to get these plants to grow I had
to modify that micro plate I took a nail
clipper from home and I punched off the
bottoms of the wells after that I added
the seeds and I would nest the modified
micro plate on top of an unmodified
micro plate with my nested micro plate
made
I now need a way to grow the seats but
plant growth chambers cost thousands of
dollars I simply did not have in order
to ensure that the plants would be able
to grow successfully I took a plastic
zipper bag I put the nested micro plate
in the back and I let them grow as a
mini greenhouse in that way instead of
investing thousands of dollars in
equipment I simply couldn’t afford
without creativity the leap from using
PCR micro plates as a means to analyze
samples to use them as a means to make a
mini greenhouse would not have been
possible grits is also a very important
element in science because in science
that basically means skill times effort
squared grit makes a difference because
science can get pretty brutal in fact I
would say the type of grit you encounter
in a research lab is not that far
removed from the type of grit you would
encounter in a spaghetti western
although you’ll find more scientists
troubleshooting than sharpshooting basic
daily lab procedures require the same
amount of high-level intensity and
mental resilience in my personal
experience just designing the nested
micro plate model took a year and then
two years later still tweaking and still
improving at times the pace of my
research was torturous the obstacles
seemed never-ending the first time I
tried to actually grow the plants in the
micro plate they all died before the
seeds could germinate the water had
evaporated from the lower wells
resulting in a plate of dead plants not
to be deterred
I had to readjust my approach instead of
using water I used a gel that wouldn’t
evaporate however after that roadblock
was solved I had another hurdle in my
path I had to find a way to actually
track down the genes responsible for a
red leaf color and lettuce responsible
for anthocyanins when I looked at the
database however the data that should be
there was not there sequences were
nowhere to be found in order to actually
get access to the sequences I had to do
a lot of molecular footwork that
normally would not have been required
and took a lot longer than normal
although I could have been discouraged
by this I chose to to find it as a way
instead to hone my grid and my mental
resilience and intensity this rigorous
process would sometimes leave me feeling
like I want to give up would sometimes
make me feel like I wasn’t in control of
the experiment but sometimes some very
rare sometimes I found the answer I
needed to keep coming back to the lab
this intense process instilled in me an
appreciation for stick-to-itiveness and
self-control through this process I
learned that grit was the key instrument
that allowed me to turn an idea into
something actionable that can affect
change in other people’s lives
however grit isn’t alone to this a
growth mindset is also very important in
science a growth mindset can be defined
as exponential opportunity it makes a
difference because well no one knows
everything for an allegedly intelligent
species we don’t
a heck of a lot about why we’re here as
a lab where I work through a high school
internship program the bird s Bloomberg
Institute I am in a crowd of people who
are all experiencing the same battle
constantly dancing along the edge of
uncertainty where there are plenty of
questions not a lot of answers as you
can imagine this makes for a great
conversation starter I treasure the
conversations I have with innovative
minds from all ages and all backgrounds
for example two weeks ago I was
encountering a lot of problems more than
normal with my nested microplate model I
just didn’t know if the cells I wanted
were shedding and if I couldn’t obtain
DNA using the model well the entire
point was moot all the work I had done
would have been for nothing when I
shared my troubles with a researcher he
showed me how to use a fluorescence
microscope suddenly it would allow me to
tag the cells and then visually verify
if their presence was there or not
through his help I was unable to
continue my research to increase the
concentration of DNA in the walls and to
make my research easier to replicate by
other scientists the creative processes
that you see in the lab made an
excellent incubator for my ideas as a
teen who is very familiar with the idea
of empty creativity of having ideas but
not enough money or mentorship to see
that idea through the resource is an
openness at the lab makes it feel like
an oasis to me every day I go into the
lab taking comfort in the fact the story
of scientific inquiry is never-ending
and I will always be able to refresh
renew and retool in my research a growth
mindset made a difference because it
allowed me to find truth when there was
no pre-existing road map throughout my
time I was there at home at school or in
the lab three key qualities gave me the
inspiration and direction to find my
passion in science creativity grits and
a growth mindset as modeled by my
parents my peers teachers and my lab
colleagues
his key traits allow me to see science
as more than just the scientist in fact
over the course of my lifetime science
has rapidly increased its inclusivity
and its diversity between 1970 and
present the proportion of female stem
workers has increased from 14 to 41
percent nationally and for non-white
stem workers it has increased by 23
percent at the brew Cass Bloomberg
Institute where I work 42 percent of the
researchers are female and 55 percent of
the researchers are non-white when we
defy these stereotypes that limit our
ability to innovate and to think
creatively we open up our limitless
scientific potential the time to retire
the scientist is now although more work
needs to be done to engage and enable
minorities in science the new and
changing face of scientific inquiry is
united by three common denominators
creativity grit and a growth mindset
[Applause]
[Music]
you
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