The word “clever” is rooted in the idea of catching onto something quickly. We humans are certainly clever, grasping observations and discoveries about the world around us, and often turning around and applying what we learn to try to make our lives better in some way.

Sometimes this cleverness works to our great advantage: velcro, penicillin, the Internet. Human lives are made easier in some way - small or large - because we have taken our discoveries and applied them.

Other times, our cleverness ends up getting the better of us: the nuclear bomb, fossil fuels, the Internet. Human lives may have improved in some ways - winning a war, commuting to a good job, finding nearly infinite resources online - but too often there are unforeseen costs to pay.

This blog is for exploring the outcomes of our cleverness. The good, the bad, and the downright dumbfounding. Science is a place where cleverness is the name of the game, and scientists aren’t always the best at explaining what they discover. That’s my job.

Exploring and explaining science is fascinating, but it doesn’t stop there - without understanding how science impacts our lives and the world around us, we’re selling ourselves short.

We’re clever. Let’s learn from each other’s discoveries and heed Jane’s advice about how we apply them.

(Easier said than done; the line between “good” discoveries and “bad” discoveries is crooked and hazy at best. Let’s explore that, too.)