Dr Maggie Aderin-Pocock: ‘The universe doesn’t frighten me. Words do’
I said we’d find evidence of alien life by the end of 2024. But I said that when I was on Jools Holland’s Hootenanny, and my thinking was that if I said something outlandish they’d invite me back – if only to humiliate me. I’m sure alien life does exist. It’s just a numbers game. But we probably won’t get confirmation of it in the next three months.
Science starts out as magic. I’m fascinated by things that seem intangible in the moment, and I like to think of magic as a science that we don’t understand yet. Sometimes beliefs just don’t stand up against the rigorous investigation needed for something to be science, but I think the wonder inherent to magic is needed to get there in the first place. It’s why so much of science fiction becomes science fact – why the telecommunication devices of Star Trek became today’s mobile phones. It’s important for scientists to think beyond
The universe doesn’t scare me. Words do. I’m dyslexic and it takes me ages to start writing books and hit deadlines, because I’m so scared I’m going to get things wrong. I know a lot of people who are terrified by time and space – it makes them feel small and insignificant. And I’ll concede that it can be daunting stuff. I much prefer to see the wonder in being part of it at all. But the terror I feel teetering on the edge of the black hole, trying to start writing? That keeps me awake at night.
Scientists need humility. We need to be able to accept being wrong. If scientists can’t accept that possibility, then the scientific method doesn’t work. Sometimes science that turns out to be wrong was right based on the evidence of the time. Astronomy is a great example.
The ancients thought the Earth was the centre of everything. They had evidence for that. You could see the sun rise. You could see it set. It all suggested that the Earth was the centre of everything. Then we learned about wandering stars and had to rethink it. Scientists need to not be wedded to our ideas, which can be a very human failing.
Science needs diversity. It’s not about quotas, it’s genuinely required by the discipline. You need different ideas coming in from different cultures, different ways of looking at things, different skill-sets working together. Otherwise everyone is exploring the same areas, seeing things in the same way, and it’s difficult to have progress and innovation.
It’s important to me to work in promoting diversity, because I know what it feels like, being underestimated, being told that people like me don’t have a place in the field. I don’t want talented young people to feel like that any more.
I can’t believe they made a Barbie of me. I told Mattel that when I was a child I used to pull apart Barbies and try to make one that looked like me. Now children like me can grow up and do things unlike what was once expected. I often use the doll as a vehicle when I go to speak to kids in schools. It bridges the gap. It’s a magical thing, but a powerful thing, too.
We need to restore people’s faith in science. There are lots of reasons why people have wavered, but understanding the consequences is more important than understanding the reasons. We’ve gone through an evolution. In the past scientists were the knowledgable ones, we viewed everyone else as being there to impart our wisdom on. That’s not a great way to communicate and Learning should be more of a conversation, like in the case of astronomy. Yes, the big telescopes are where most of the breakthroughs come from – but we wouldn’t know where to point them if we didn’t have the involvement of amateurs.
Webb’s Universe, by Dr Maggie Aderin-Pocock, is published in October by Michael O’Mara Books, at £25. Buy a copy for £22.50 at guardianbookshop.com
