While perusing the NY Hall of Science website, I discovered an effort to interest children in science and mathematics that took the form of a TV show called “Cyberchase”. While I applaud the idea, I think it may be missing the point somewhat. It serves the purpose of initiating children into science, but children tend to be natural scientists anyway. What we really need to do to keep children interested is:

a. Stop pressuring them to stray from science in the later years of their childhood and their adolescence. Anyone who fell into the “nerd” group in high school (and face it, most scientists did) should know that a desire to do science runs very much against the ability to remain popular.

b. Bring science and mathematics into the public consciousness. The only times people hear about scientists are when they have results, which are invariably communicated in the form of “scientists have found an x% link between y and z”, and they almost never hear about mathematicians. Ask any random person on the street whether they’ve heard of the recent proof of the Poincare conjecture. You won’t find many who know that it was proved (or even what it is!) or the name of the mathematician who did it. People know who Einstein is because his name became synonymous with genius. However, if ordinary scientists and mathematicians could be brought to the same level of public awareness as other occupations (forget celebrity status; it happens in other countries, but will not happen here for a long time, if ever), then people might consider taking careers in science.

How this would be done is up for debate, but it wouldn’t be done by a TV show. Still, every little bit counts, to kudos for the idea.