MICHIO KAKU: First of all, we are all born scientists. When we're born, we wonder where we came from. We wonder why the stars shine. We wonder why the sun comes out in the morning. We're born scientists. And then one day, we get the greatest destroyer of scientists known to science. What is the greatest destroyer of scientists? And that is junior high school. Think about it. In junior high school, that's when science is reduced to memorization, memorization of things that are totally irrelevant. Memorize the parts of a flower.
Why? I mean, kids are smart enough to realize that a lot of the junk they have to memorize, they're never going to use again in their life. So why did they have to use it? You see, science is about life. It's about the world. It's about how we live and how we work in the future, not memorizing the parts of a flower. Now, my favorite quote from Einstein is that if a theory cannot be explained to a child, then the theory is probably useless. Now, what does that mean? That means, if a theory is all equations and all memorizing this and memorizing that, it's useless. Because what drives science is principles, concepts. That's what drives science. So when you learn biology, Of all the different kinds of animals, you have to learn about evolution, How it all fits together, how everything can Be summarized in a very simple principle, based on DNA and evolution.
When you learn about physics, ultimately, you'll Learn that there are only two theories in physics, two basic principles in all Of physics Relativity and the quantum principle. That's it, folks. That's the sum total of all of physics summarized in two principles. But that's not the way we teach it. Sometimes I teach physics for medical students. And this is probably the only physics course they're going to get. And I teach it. I look at the book. And I have to teach them about tuning forks, levers, pulleys, friction things that were really cutting edge 300 years ago. These are doctors, going to be doctors. They have to know about MRI machines, X-ray machines, CAT scans. They have to learn about radio medicine, about the latest in cancer research, about gene sequencing. And here I am teaching them about friction and tuning forks and levers.
And I say to myself, these are the doctors that are going to be treating us in the future? What kind of background are they giving us? That's why I think one of the problems that the educational establishment makes is they teach the past. You realize that we do graduate young students from college that are prepared. They're prepared to live in the year 1950. The problem is we don't live in 1950 anymore. But that's how we teach science to young kids. We don't teach them the quantum principle. We don't talk about lasers. We don't talk about microchips. No, we talk about friction and pulleys.
