How I apply the scientific method to life Jiwon Park TEDxSGH

How many of you consider yourself as scientist? Okay, see few hands in the audience. How many of you have ever done scientific experiment? I'm seeing more hands, that's good sign. Use the scientific method. If the term doesn't ring bell, perhaps this chart jogs your memory. Okay, well, in the next few minutes, hope to convince you that all of us are scientists. One of my most memorable experiences from my childhood is going to the science museum with my younger brother and dad. From these early experiences, became fascinated by the underlying mechanisms and atoms making up the world. And that's why decided to study chemistry at MIT and continue conducting chemistry research here in Poland. And as chemist, my everyday job involves applying the scientific method to unknown chemical questions. Here's an example from my research. was curious to see if the electron transfer process between these compounds could occur at very low temperatures. So, formed question. What happens when you mix this magnesium compound with this radical compound called TEMPO at minus 70° in solid state? formulated hypothesis that these two products will combine to form the structure that you'll see on your right. Then, experimented with my hypothesis by physically grinding these two compounds at minus 70° There were times that had to troubleshoot the procedure because spilled the compound or added the wrong stoichiometry. But in the end, was able to obtain structure by NMR spectroscopy to draw the conclusion that my structure was actually two structures. The desired product and this other product that really did not expect to have. This basically meant that have to research through the entire scientific method to test new altered hypothesis. Perhaps emanating from my days in lab, I've come to appreciate the versatility of the scientific method. Take for example my romantic life. I'm 22 years old and romance is an important aspect of any 22-year-old. This is an example from real experience had. was sitting in my intro chemistry class and two rows away from me, there's this guy. make observations. Wow, this guy is really cute and he's taking very detailed notes in class. So thought to myself, wow, he must be very intelligent, diligent, and attractive. formed question, does this guy like me? Then constructed hypothesis, this guy could definitely like me. And then went on to experiment my hypothesis by accidentally bumping into him after class and asking him when the next problem set was due. Afterwards, casually asked if he'd be interested in grabbing dinner with me in the cafeteria. He said yes. But when showed up at the cafeteria, he was sitting next to another girl who was clearly his girlfriend based on the behavior that they were showing. My hypothesis was rejected. have to recircle it and find new one. As you may imagine, experiments almost never work the first time. My original hypotheses, whether it was in lab or my love life, have rarely been accepted on the first try. I've also learned this firsthand while working on nonprofit in the Philippines. In the Philippines, my brother and sought out to find way to deliver quality digital literacy education to youth living in impoverished islands. Our first hypothesis was to use digital literacy education as vehicle to promote peaceful conflict resolution on the conflict-ridden island of Mindanao. After testing our hypothesis, we realized that digital literacy education was not necessarily the best solution to resolve the decades-long conflict that's been ongoing on this island. But, digital literacy education and other aspects and other parts of rural Philippines was still an area that could be improved. So, we thought of second hypothesis. We wanted to introduce rural youth in the Philippines to the basic concepts of computer programming. For 2 years on the island of Northern Samar, we were able to successfully do this. We conducted workshops for students from various different grade levels. We trained teachers. But, while doing this, we realized that less than 1% of the students that we taught could even type properly with all 10 fingers. And this led to our third hypothesis. This time, we hypothesized that we could create free educational typing software that would be adaptable to regions with slow or no internet. To test this hypothesis, we've been working with the National Department of Information and Communications Technology of the Philippines to launch our software at 1,628 community e-centers across the country. What started as an idea to promote peaceful conflict resolution evolved into an educational platform for offline communities in the Philippines. I'm sure that this will not be the last iteration of our hypothesis. Because in science, the more data that you gather, the higher confidence you have in supporting your hypothesis. So, now you may be wondering, how can you apply the scientific method to your own lives? Let's take pretty common example that all of us face, commuting. How many of you take the same commute route to work every day? Okay, admit I'm also guilty of this. But interestingly, there's study that shows that the scientific method could be very helpful in optimizing our commute routes. In 2014, workers in the London subway system went on strike. As result, several tube stations were closed, forcing commuters to experiment with alternative routes. Researchers at Cambridge and Oxford found that those who actually experimented with alternative routes were significantly less likely to return to their old routes after the strike ended compared to those who had not experimented during the strike. This shows that commuters were able to find more optimal route after they were being forced to experiment. In light of this, perhaps we can ask new question about our own commuting routes and test hypothesis which could involve using different mode of transportation or getting off at different subway stop. hope think in this scenario using the scientific method could be more insightful than using Google Maps. And if you're late to work while testing your hypothesis, am not responsible for that. All right, so beyond commuting encourage you to ask yourselves how you can apply the scientific method in other aspects of your lives. We've all been doing this in some way or form subconsciously or consciously. But to really get you thinking on this, wanted to leave you with three last suggestions based on my experience as chemist not as life coach. First, it's okay to be unsure. Regardless of how systematic we try to be, every model, including the scientific method, has exceptions and errors embedded. We try to be perfect, but as humans, we make mistakes in the analysis or experimentation often without logical explanation. We've fallen in love with the wrong people even though the data clearly rejected our hypothesis. We've done crazy things in college that have no logical explanation. And even in these situations that seem to defy methodical logic, the scientific method is still relevant. Confounding variables or third variables that you failed to control, exceptions and errors are all part of model, including the scientific method. These uncertainties shouldn't deter us from testing new questions. And that leads me to the next point. Ask wild questions. We'll never be able to discover new things about ourselves or the natural world without experimenting. In science, you have the opportunity to try again. You get to try as many times as you want. In some cases, your experiment may be an infinite loop. Finally, acknowledge that failure is not really failure. The inventor of the light bulb, who you may all know, Thomas Edison, said that if find 10,000 ways something won't work, haven't failed. I'm not discouraged because every wrong attempt discarded is another step forward. In science, you can either accept, reject, or fail to reject hypothesis, but never just fail hypothesis. The results of one bad experiment become the basis for future questions and hypotheses. All of us are scientists of our own world. The questions we ask are unlimited. The experiences we have are never failures, and the entire world is for us to explore. Thank you.