I’ve been working for several years in science communication, but it wasn’t until recently that I realized it.
For the longest time I thought I was just a scientist who was trained to do science, but wasn’t really doing it, or at least not enough of it. I wasn’t working in a research lab or publishing in journals. I was teaching biology to college students, and writing blogs and articles about science for lay audiences in my spare time.
In the classroom, I saw myself as an educator.
Outside of the classroom, I saw myself as a writer.
Outside of science, I was a singer and songwriter.
But I didn’t quite know how to reconcile these very different identities. I often felt very compartmentalized.
And when I discovered that I had a passion for sharing science particularly with faith communities, especially those for whom science was a point of contention, I started to feel even more confused.
While this work left me feeling very fulfilled, what it looked like in practice often felt too squishy to be science, or even at times too spiritual to be the work of science.
I found myself writing devotionals, pieces that engaged religious texts with science. I started to lead science-themed bible studies. I even started writing faith-based songs that explored themes of science like this recent environmental folk song called “Come Alive.” My hope was that churches would incorporate them into their time of worship and that the songs would help spark dialogue.
This work felt super niche. I couldn’t quite put a label on what I found myself doing. I wondered what the scientific community would think of my work. Would they understand? I hadn’t quite seen science communication look like what I was doing, and so I refrained from using that label as an identifier.
It was only in the past few years that I realized the work I am doing, in all its creative forms, is indeed science communication.
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Wonder & Worship
Photo by Aimee Wood
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