Originally, Church started 'Bad Science Jokes' over a decade ago on Tumblr. "Since then, it branched off to every corner of the web. Bad Science Jokes, these days, is mainly on Instagram with 800k followers looking for the latest in bad science humor! I think science and educational memes resonate with so many people because so many people can relate," she told Bored Panda in an email.
"The humor doesn't need to be at a PhD level. Bite-sized one-liners can help people learn and laugh at the same time! A great science meme is just that, something everyone can smile at," she said.
We were curious to get Church's thoughts on what could make science more appealing to students, as well as what anyone hoping to switch careers to something more STEM-related might want to consider.
"I appreciate the push the last couple of decades have done to try to increase STEM awareness. I think the main thing society itself needs to do is show STEM fields are a cool, interesting, needed career path. Having more people see scientists in the real world being just as cool as the latest trend is what's going to bring people to more highly consider STEM fields," Church told Bored Panda.
"I think middle and high schools should push more experiments in lessons—I know that's asking a lot—but from what I hear that is something that helped push tons of children to pursue STEM careers. The excitement of lab day in school!" she said.
"The only advice I would give to someone who is looking at getting into a STEM field is to ensure you truly enjoy the path you're potentially changing to. There's a lot of work to be done in STEM fields. Be sure you know what you're getting into by asking others in the field, or online, what to expect in the day-to-day. You should always be prepared when making a big jump into a new career!"
Something that recently captured our imaginations was the successful launch of the Europa Clipper mission. The spacecraft, which is meant to conduct a detailed study of Jupiter’s moon Europa, will spend nearly 6 years traveling 1.8 billion miles across our solar system to its destination.
If all goes well, the craft should arrive in orbit around Jupiter by April 2030 (if you’re reading this then, hi, Future Pandas!). From there, the Europa Clipper will conduct 49 close flybys of Europa, every two to three weeks.
The reason why the Europa Clipper won’t be orbiting Europa is because of the intense radiation zone around the moon, which would fry the nine sensitive science instruments housed within the spacecraft.
NASA writes: “There is strong evidence Jupiter’s moon Europa has a saltwater ocean that may be one of the best places to look for environments where life could exist beyond Earth.”
So, being the space nerds that we are, we’re extremely excited to find out the results of all the experiments the spacecraft will conduct from 2030 onward. We’ll be breathlessly following the developments.
And speaking of geeky space things, yours truly has sent their name to Mars on previous NASA missions. It’s a ton of fun to be a symbolic part of something so huge. Keep an eye out for future missions if you want to do something similar.
Staying up to date with science news is a fun pastime of ours. Not only is it enjoyable to feel like you’re on top of the latest developments in your areas of interest but it also gently reframes your perspective. The facts that we learned in school, while useful in a general sense, might not exactly be the cutting-edge information that they used to be back then.
It’s tough to find the time and energy to be curious about the scientific world if you’ve got a full-time job, have kids, are studying for a degree, or have any number of other important responsibilities.
The easiest thing to do after a busy day is to binge some TV shows on the couch. While that’s cozy and comfortable and a good break once in a while, it’s not the best for our bodies and minds.
Taking even a few minutes to exercise, study something new, or work on that creative project of yours (the one you keep procrastinating on) is worth the effort. All of that minuscule incremental progress quickly adds up!
So, for instance, if you find that you’ve been completely detached from the scientific world since high school ended, you could intentionally start reading one or two short articles from reputable sources every day.
Little by little, you’ll work your way up to more in-depth analyses and research papers. You never know, it might be the impulse you need to continue your education, whether in a scientific field or something else.
