Science
5 Interesting Stereotypes about Science
1. Science is Always Strictly Experimental
Despite being preached from a young age about the scientific method, using experimental data and whatnot, this woke ‘movement’ has only existed for a tiny sliver of humanity.
In fact, physics, one of the more stereotypically challenging STEM subjects, remained as philosophy until the late 1900s. Why? Well, the fundamental practice behind the two schools revolves heavily around how things work, why they work, and the nature of reality and existence. Both also had a nasty habit of asking about hypothetical scenarios held under the most extreme, unrealistic conditions. Ever heard of the trolley problem? About pushing one person on some train tracks to save five? The physics equivalent would be asking what would happen if we somehow were able to accelerate an object all the way up to light speed. And left with technology powerful enough to power up a light bulb, physicists had no option but to resort to logic and reason to answer these questions, the exact same way philosophers would.
2. Science is Cold and Uncreative
‘I as an artist can see how beautiful this is but you as a scientist take this all apart and it becomes a dull thing’, said a friend of Feynman.
To which Feynman beautifully replied , ‘At the same time, I see much more about the flower than he sees. I could imagine the cells in there, the complicated actions inside, which also have a beauty. I mean it’s not just beauty at this dimension, at one centimetre; there’s also beauty at smaller dimensions, the inner structure, also the processes.’
Just like how there are laws in the arts regarding which colours pair well together, theories about which social norms we adhere to and methods that are used to boost one’s creative writing, there is also a place for creativity in the sciences. The most famous theories are those which defied all scientific norms and were so outrageous that they took years to be accepted. It requires creativity to even think that the Earth revolves around the Sun, when the literal society you’re in believes otherwise. It requires creativity to come up with solutions, and that’s what our greatest scientists excelled in.
3. Scientists are Weird People
Weird means nothing but different; not scared to defy social norms. And scientists just have a bunch of unique qualities that make them stick out from everyone. Whilst many pursue prioritise money and job security in potential careers, scientists prefer the freedom to their pursue intellectual interests. In order to do so, they have to be somewhat smarter than the average person, which again sets them apart from everyone else. Scientists may be unusual, but don’t use ‘weird’ to demean them and alienate them from the rest of society.
4. Sciences are Harder than Humanities
They’re both difficult, just in different ways I’d say. Whilst the sciences are conceptually quite difficult, there’s at least a set mark scheme with a structure around the content. There’s no space for opinions in an exam, so the mark you receive from one teacher would be the same if marked by another. The humanities, whilst conceptually much easier, are way harder to master. Since there’s much more freedom for opinions, the content will end up contradicting each other most of the time, so you have to independently be able to filter out half of the taught content. Furthermore, there’s much more flexibility within exams, the mark you receive from one teacher may not be the same if marked by another. So sure, sciences are initially quite difficult, but humanities have an underlying complexity that is usually overlooked.
5. Gender Stereotypes in STEM
Several studies have demonstrated that gender preferences become more manifest the more egalitarian a society becomes. In other words, equality of opportunity creates differences in outcomes.
There are biological reasons for this, ones that are also found in other primates. In general, women prefer people, while men generally prefer things. Men tend to prefer subjects that deal with abstract reasoning and engineering, while women tend to prefer subjects that deal with human relationships.
So even in the STEM fields, areas such as biology and medicine are dominated by female graduates while fields like mathematics and engineering are dominated by male graduates.
6. Science and Religion are Incompatible
I said five interesting stereotypes, not six. Let’s save this saucy question for later.
