NPR Science Correspondent Nell Greenfieldboyce has just published her first book, a series of essays titled “Transient and Strange”. Scott Brocato recently spoke with her about the book.
SCOTT BROCATO:
You've been an NPR science correspondent since 2005, after spending a decade working in print. How did that opportunity to work for NPR present itself, and what were some of the challenges going from print to broadcasting?
NELL GREENFIELDBOYCE:
That's an interesting question. You know, it was a real transition. I was friends with David Kestenbaum, who at the time was reporting on physics for NPR, and he told me there was a job opening. And I hadn't had any experience with radio at all. And I told him that. And he's like, ohh it'll be fine. And it was actually quite difficult! (laughs) It is very different to write a radio piece than a magazine piece, which is what I was doing. But I quickly learned that I just, I love it. I think it's a beautiful way of getting information and stories across.
SCOTT BROCATO:
Your new book out is called "Transient and Strange”. It's a series of essays about how science helps contextualize your life, all of our lives, with topics from tornadoes to fleas to how Mecca inspire touchable moonstones oceans away. And in the introduction, you write about a friend and science writer who encouraged you to write about a spider who had spun a web in your kitchen window frame that you grew to care for, for a blog that was run by a science journalist. Tell us about that essay. That was your first, correct?
NELL GREENFIELDBOYCE:
Right. So I have a friend who runs a website called The Last Word on Nothing--that's from a Victor Hugo quote, which is “the science says the first word on everything and the last word on nothing”--and she encouraged me to write something for this website. And I had just started watching this spider that spun a web in my kitchen window frame, and I really got interested in the spider and wanted to understand its experience and what its life was like, and it started making me think about my own life. And I wrote this little essay that made me realize I really like this form of writing. It's interesting. An essay is kind of an exploration and it's very different than my day-to-day writing and more personal and more experimental. So I just started writing more and more like that, and eventually I had enough that it turned out to be a book.
SCOTT BROCATO:
Which essay do you feel is the most intimate for you that was featured in the book, the most personal to write?
NELL GREENFIELDBOYCE:
Gosh, there are some seriously personal things in here, whether it's me comforting my son about his fear of tornadoes or my first kiss. Or, you know, there's an essay at the end of the book about my husband and I trying to have children and contemplating whether we should take steps to avoid passing on a kidney disease gene and his family. And all of those essays, you know, sort of take you right into my house, to these conversations between me and my family.
But the reason I wanted to write them is not just because I wanted to explore how I thought about these things, but also because to me, they often resonate with things I know about in the history of science. And that's one of the things I wanted to get across with this book, is that science isn't something separate from us, but it can be very closely related to our lives and the people who did science and the ways we think about things. It's all part of one big project of trying to understand the universe and our place in it.
SCOTT BROCATO:
The one essay you mentioned about your husband, My Eugenics Project--was he OK with you including that in the book?
NELL GREENFIELDBOYCE:
You know, I asked him a lot of questions about that. He's like, yeah, right, whatever you want. I was like, Are you sure? Are you sure--people are gonna know this? He's like, he doesn't care. He feels like this is... you know, at the time, it was emotionally wrenching for us. But it's the kind of experience that lots and lots of people are having these days. And writing about it openly is a chance for people maybe to think about some things and consider some things that maybe they wouldn't otherwise do.
SCOTT BROCATO:
Your son and daughter are featured throughout the book. They're both very intelligent and not surprisingly, considering the source, very cognizant about science and the natural world. So in an age where science is increasingly being dismissed and disregarded, what are ways that an appreciation and love for science can be instilled in kids today?
NELL GREENFIELDBOYCE:
Boy, that's an interesting question. You know, at least in our household, I haven't had to do much to encourage it (laughs), because the kids are right there trying to understand everything. I remember in the grocery store with my kids just looking at the fish display in the seafood counter, they wanted to buy a fish and just take it home and like, cut it open and see what was going on inside of it. So you know, they're very much ready to get hands-on with the world and, you know, try to figure stuff out. And I just indulge all of that as much as possible. Just give them the materials and the freedom to sort of muck about.
And I feel like another thing is that often science is presented as sort of, “these are the things that we know that scientists have discovered.” But it's really much more interesting to talk about what scientists don't know, and what questions burble up naturally, rather than trying to give somebody some preformed encyclopedia of knowledge.
SCOTT BROCATO:
Finally, what do you want readers to take away from your book after they’ve read it?
NELL GREENFIELDBOYCE:
Gosh, you know, I would be so honored if people read this book, and I hope they would come away with an understanding about some of the history of science related to things in the book, like tornadoes and black holes and genetics and meteorites. But more than that, I hope they would just get the sense that, you know, their efforts to understand the universe are not separate from science, that it's all part of one big human endeavor. And we're all just right there in the mix and that it's all very closely woven together.
SCOTT BROCATO:
NPR science correspondent Nell Greenfield Boyce, author of Transient and Strange, which is out now. Thank you for joining us on KRWG Public Media.
NELL GREENFIELDBOYCE:
Thank you for having me.
