Issues, Ideas and Icons

Do you ever read something so wonderful that you just want to grab everyone you know by the shirttail and yell: "Hey, read this, right now, it's so interesting; you'll really love it! Read it, here, sit down, read it and then we can talk about it!" Well, maybe you do and maybe you don't, but it happens to me a lot. I spent much of yesterday afternoon reading "2005 Year in Science," in the wonderful Seedmagazine.com. Now I've got to find a print copy of the magazine, as this is an article I want to keep. As well as see the accompanying photos.

There are three parts to the article: Issues, Ideas and Icons. Issues presents "The science stories of 2005 that sparked our best conversations, wildest speculations and most passionate debates." They range from sports stars on drugs to the right-to-die controversy, stem cell research, the politicizing of climate change, death throes of the oil economy, evolution vs. intelligent design. Ideas gets even more interesting and exciting, with "the ten most revelatory experiments, findings, discoveries and proofs of the year. Welcome to the new scientific renaissance." This section had me levitating with fascination.

But even more so did the final section, Icons. Here we meet "15 people who have shaped the global conversation about science in 2005." These fifteen mostly young people are not all strictly scientists. It is in the final section that the connection between science and so many other aspects of contemporary life shines through. Here we see the interfacing of science with art, social sciences, environmentalism and conservation, philosophy, literature, even blogging. The importance of science in this century is made stunningly clear, without propagandizing or preaching. It makes me want to go right back to school and start all over again, pick up the interest I had in science in my high school chemistry and biology classes. (Catholic high school, a long time ago, with no hint of creationism taught, straight-out science you better believe. Those were the days we were trying to get ahead of the Russians in science, before we didn't care how dumb we were.) Listen, okay, read this, wontcha, now? soon? I promise you won't regret a moment of it.

Oh, and when you finish 2005, there's a short article with prognostications for this year: Science in 2006: Looking Back and Facing Forward

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