We had a conversation with our campus tour leaders this week about science. Most tour leaders are not science majors. For whatever reason, few science students are drawn to our work. We get plenty of business and journalism majors, and there’s no shortage of English and political science students either.

But as campus tours unfold and they pass by science buildings, it’s easy for the non-science students on our team to dismiss science or apologize that we require at least a couple of science classes for all of our students.

I felt that way when I was an undergraduate. I just wanted to get past my science requirements with as little stress as possible. Now, I regret how little attention I paid to those subjects. Science has become significantly more fascinating to me in recent years.

In the history of humanity, it is the development of and amazing advances in science that stand out as our greatest achievements. Art and statecraft have their place, but science, even though it’s a relatively recent endeavor, has changed our lives exponentially for the better and sparked our inclination to explore and discover as never before. More people should honor and understand science. If we don’t do that in higher education, where will we?

I have begun trying to absorb more now about science and adding books to my reading list by or about Feynman, Darwin, Sagan, and Einstein. I don’t always understand. It’s like reading something written in a foreign language at times. But I can’t help but get excited about approaching the frontier of mysteries our ancestors could not even imagine.

This is the first video in the delightful Feynman Series. Check out the Sagan Series as well.

“I can live with doubt and uncertainty and not knowing. I think it’s much more interesting to live with not knowing than to have answers which might be wrong.” -Richard Feynman