What does science mean for you? Beyond the Gen Ed credits and the classes you take for pre-medical, pre-graduate school or pre-whatever requirements, what part of science do you care about?
Maybe it's the environment that interests you. Maybe you find biochemistry or psychology fascinating.
Or maybe you find science incredibly boring. Maybe you're glad you never have to take another science class again after Age of Dinosaurs.
But as students at UF, we have cutting edge-science all around us. UF's Health Science Center and academic science programs put research dollars to use every day.
And other people care about what UF is doing. National Public Radio aired a piece Thursday about UF research on the interaction between ants, elephants and trees in Africa. If public radio feels that UF research is important enough to dedicate airtime to, shouldn't we as students know what is going on around us?
As a journalism major, I'm not required in my classes to pay attention to science. But I want to. To me, science is interesting enough that I want to understand it, and journalism allows me to learn science on the job. Journalism also allows me to communicate what I learn, hopefully in a way that my audience will care about the subject matter.
Maybe you don't care what's going on in the science realm, at UF or anywhere else. But doesn't science matter? Science affects your daily life. The taxes you pay go toward funding research programs. The weather affects how much you pay for produce at the grocery store. Global warming affects what politicians say in debates.
As the research blogger this semester, I hope that my blogs will persuade you to care about some area of science. So maybe, even if it's only through an Age of Dinosaurs class, you can find something about science that makes you say, "Wow, that's cool." There's no better place than a university to start learning.
