Science is for everyone kids included Beau Lotto and Amy OToole

so this game is very simple all you have

to do is read what you see right so I’m

gonna count you so we do it all - it all

do it together

okay one two three amazing what about

this one one two three all right one two

three

if you were Portuguese right how about

this one one two three what are you

reading there are no words there I said

read what you’re seeing right literary

says what are eaten right that’s what

you should have said right why is this

is because perception is grounded in our

experience right the brain takes

meaningless information and makes

meaning out of it which means we never

see what’s there

we never see information we only ever

see what was useful to see in the past

right which means when it comes to

perception were all like this frog right

it’s getting information it’s general

behavior that’s useful

Oh

and sometimes when things don’t go our

way we get a little bit annoyed right

but we’re talking about perception here

right and perception underpins

everything we think we know we believe

our hopes our dreams the clothes we wear

falling in love everything begins with

perception

now if perception is grounded in our

history it means we’re only ever

responding according to what we’ve done

before but that creates a tremendous

problem because how can we ever see

differently now I want to tell you a

story about seeing differently and all

new perceptions begin in the same way

they begin with a question

the problem with questions is they

create uncertainty now uncertainty is a

very bad thing it’s evolutionary a bad

thing if you’re not sure that’s a

predator it’s too late ok even

seasickness is a consequence of

uncertainty right if you go down below

in a boat your inner ears are telling

you’re removing your eyes because it’s

moving in register with the boat say I’m

standing still your brain cannot deal

with the uncertainty of that information

and it gets ill the question why is one

of the most dangerous things you can do

because it takes you into uncertainty

and yet the iron is the only way we can

ever do anything new is to step into

that space so how can we ever do

anything new well fortunately evolution

is given us an answer right and it

enables us to address even the most

difficult of questions the best

questions are the ones that create the

most uncertainty they’re the ones that

question the things we think to be true

already right it’s easy to ask questions

about how did life begin or what extends

beyond the universe but the question

what you think to be true already is

really stepping into that space so what

is evolutions answer to the problem of

uncertainty it’s playing now play is not

simply a process experts until in play

will tell you that actually it’s a way

of being play is one of the only human

endeavors where uncertainty is actually

celebrated uncertainty is what makes

play fun right it’s adaptable to change

right it opens possibility

and it’s cooperative it’s actually how

we do our social bonding and it’s

intrinsically motivated what that means

is that we play to play plays its own

reward now if you look at these five

ways of being these are the exact same

ways of being you need in order to be a

good scientist science is not defined by

the method section of a paper it’s

actually a way of being which is here

and this is true for anything that is

creative so if you add rules to play you

have a game that’s actually what an

experiment is so armed with these two

ideas that science is a way of being and

experiments are play we asked can anyone

become a scientist and who better to ask

than twenty-five eight to ten year old

children because they’re experts in play

so I took my be arena down to a small

school in Devon and the aim of this was

to not just get the kids to see science

differently but through the process of

science to see themselves differently

right

the first step was to ask a question now

I should say that we didn’t get funding

for this study because that scientist

said small children could make a useful

contribution to science and the teacher

said kids couldn’t do it so we did it

anyway right of course so here are some

of the questions I put them in small

print so you wouldn’t bother reading it

point is that five of the questions that

the kids came up with were actually the

basis of science publication the last

five to 15 years right so they were

asking questions that were significant

to expert scientists now here I want to

share the stage with someone quite

special right she was one of the young

people was involved in a study and she’s

now one of the youngest published

scientists in the world right she will

now once she comes onto stage will be

the youngest person to ever speak at Ted

right now science and asking questions

about courage now she is the

personification of courage because she’s

going to stand up here and talk to you

all so Amy would you please come up

so Amy’s going to help me tell the story

of what we call the black cotton bees

project and first he’s going to tell you

the question that they came up with so

go ahead Amy thank you babe we thought

that was easy to see the link between

humans and apes in the way that we think

because we look like but we wondered if

there’s a possible link with other

animals it’d be amazing

if humans and bees thought similar since

they seem so different from us so we

asked if humans of bees might sell

complex problems in the same way really

we want to know if bees can also adapt

themselves to new situations using

previous learn rules and conditions so

what if bees can think like us well it’d

be amazing since we’re talking about

insects with only one million brain

cells but actually makes a lot of sense

they should because bees like us can

recognize a good foul regardless of the

time of day the light the weather or

from any angle approaching from so next

step was to design an experiment which

is a game so the kids went off and they

designed this experiment and so that

will game and so Amy can you tell us

what the game was in the puzzle that you

set the bees the puzzle we came up with

was an if-then will we has to be someone

not just to go to a certain color but to

a certain color flower only when it’s in

a certain pattern there were only

rewarded if they went to the yellow

flowers if the yellow flowers were

surrounded by the blue or if the blue

flowers were surrounded by the yellow

now there’s a number of different rules

the basic allowance of the suppose o the

interesting question is which what was

really exciting about this project was

we and though had no idea whether it was

work it was completely new and no one

had done it before including adults

including the teachers and that was

really hard for the teachers it’s easy

for a scientist scoring and not have a

clue what he’s doing because that’s what

we do in the lab but for a teacher not

to know what’s gonna happen at the end

of the day so much of the credit goes to

Dave Strudwick who is the collaborator

on this project okay so I’m not going to

go through the whole details of the

study because actually you can read it

read about it but the next step is

observation so here are some of the

students doing the observations they’re

recording the data of where the bees fly

can you help what good scientist says

that right right so we’ve got our

observations we’ve got our data they do

the simple mathematics averaging etc etc

and now we want to share that’s the next

step so we’re going to write this up and

try to submit this for publication right

so we have to write it up so we go of

course to the pub all right the one on

the left is mine okay now I tell them a

paper has four different sections and

introduction of methods a results a

discussion the introduction says what’s

the question and why methods what did

you do

results what was an observation and the

discussion is who cares right that’s a

science paper basically so the kids give

me the words right I put it into a

narrative which means that this paper is

written in kids speak it’s not run by me

is written by Amy and the other students

in the class as a consequence this

science paper begins once upon a time

the results section it says training

phase the puzzle done done right and the

methods it says then we put the B’s into

the fridge and maybe pie smiley face

right this is a science paper we’re

gonna try to get it published so here’s

the title page we have a number of

authors they’re all the ones in bold are

eight to ten years old the first author

is blackout in primary school because

the forever reference it would be black

Walton at all and not one individual so

we submit it to a public access journal

and it says this it said many things but

it said this I’m afraid the paper fails

our initial quality control checks in

several different ways in other words

this starts off west by the time the

figures in crayon etc so we decided

we’ll get it reviewed so I send it to

Bill Purvis who is the National Academy

of Science when a leading neuroscientist

in the world and he says this is the

most original scientific paper I’ve ever

read and it certainly deserves wide

exposure Larry and Milani

experts in vision says the papers

magnificent the work would be

publishable if done by adults so what do

we do we send it back to the editor they

say no so we asked Larry and Natalie to

hempel to write a commentary situating

the findings for scientists right

putting in the references and we submit

it to biology letters and there it was

reviewed by five independent referees

and it was published

it took four months to do the science

two years to get it published typical

science actually right so this makes Amy

and her friends the youngest published

scientists in the world what was the

feedback like well it was published two

days before Christmas downloaded 30,000

times in the first day right it was

editor’s choice in science which is a

top science magazine it’s forever freely

accessible by biology versus only paper

that will ever be freely accessible by

this journal last year was the second

most downloaded paper by Biology Letters

and the feedback from not just

scientists and teachers but the public

as well and I’ll just read one I have

red black cotton bees recently I don’t

have words to explain exactly how I’m

feeling right now what you guys have

done is real true and amazing curiosity

interests innocence and zeal are the

most basic most important things to do

science who else can have these

qualities more than children please

congratulate your children’s team from

my side so I’d like to conclude with a

physical metaphor can I do it on you

okay okay now science is about taking

risks and this is a credible risk right

for me not for him right because we’ve

only done this once before

and you like technology right alright so

this is the this is a pity me of

Technology right okay

no okay

now we’re gonna do a little

demonstration right you have to close

your eyes and you have to point where

you hear me clapping alright okay how

about if everyone over there shouts one

two three billion now open your eyes

we’ll do it one more time everyone over

there shout where is the sound coming

from

thank you very much

what’s the point the point is what

science does for us right

we normally walk through life responding

but if we ever want to do anything

differently has to step into uncertainty

when he opened his eyes he was able to

see the world in a new way that’s what

science offers us it offers the

possibility to step on uncertainty

through the process of play right now

true science education I think should be

about giving people a voice and enabling

to express that voice so I’ve asked Amy

to be the last voice in this short story

so Amy this project was really exciting

for me because it brought the process of

discovery to life they show me that

anyone and I mean anyone has a potential

to discover something new and that a

small question Kaleem into a big

discovery change in a way a person

thinks about something can be easy or

hard there all depends on the way the

person feels about change it changes way

I thought about science was surprisingly

easy once you’ve played the games and

then started to think about the puzzle I

then realized that science isn’t just a

boring subject and that anyone can

discover something new you just need the

opportunity my opportunity came in the

form of both and the black ottenby

project