Finding the spark to write about science

Before today, the last time I honest-to-God felt that I was good at science was twelve years ago.

There I was, sitting in the middle of our campus quadrangle, competing against some of the best and brightest of our school in our annual science quiz bee. 

And man, I was killing it. 

Losing—and rediscovering—the spark

But somewhere between my transition from high school achiever to degree-holding slacker, I lost the science spark.

I was constantly distracted and hungry for social interaction, and my love for knowledge slowly and steadily gave way to an all-consuming desire to engulf myself in pop culture and peppy company.

As they say, though, first love never dies, and so when I landed a gig writing geeky articles for GMA News Online four years ago, I also grabbed the chance to write science news.

To say that I struggled would be an understatement. For each science article I wrote, I had to put in about ten times the effort I was applying whenever I’d write a film review or a geek opinion piece.

These days, I’m still nowhere near “science expert,” but I can at least read through a geneticist’s research findings without getting a headache.

My relatively young career as a science news writer has also taught me the importance of effective science communication.

This is especially true in a country like the Philippines, where smart-shaming and anti-intellectualism are not just common, but even celebrated. I hate to admit it, but that’s part of the reason why I drifted away from science years ago. I guess I just got fed up with hearing “Eh ‘di ikaw na ang matalino!” from the “cool” people I wanted to hang out with.

Curiosity and awe

When I first saw the advertisements for this year’s Asian Scientist Writing Prize (ASWP) competition, my first reaction was a mix of curiosity and awe. A good friend of mine participated in the first edition of the competition two years ago, and did so well that she was selected to be one of its Merit Prize awardees.

At the back of my mind, I flirted with the notion of sending in an entry this year. I wasn’t 100% sure, though, because I felt way out of my league. What chance would I — a freelance writer with no science background, working a full-time job in an unrelated field — have against experienced science journalists and experts who had “science” written all over their faces (and could probably even tell you the chemical composition of the ink they used)?

Finding inspiration

What eventually pushed me to join, though, was asbestos.

I saw the list of the ASWP 2015 winners at the bottom of the mechanics page. It had links to the entries of the top three writers, and I decided to read what the first prize winner, Dr. Law Yao Hua, wrote. His article talked about the history of asbestos and its detrimental health effects, artfully woven into the story of a woman who lived in a house full of the mineral.

Have you ever read something so beautiful that it made you say, “I wish I were the one who wrote that”? That pretty much sums up how I felt after reading it.

By presenting facts and evidence about this silent killer through the eyes of the story’s main character, Dr. Hua’s article managed to simultaneously educate and captivate me.

This made me realize just how much I wanted to write a science article that transcends its basic function to inform. To influence readers to not just absorb knowledge, but also see it in the context of the world around them.

And maybe, just maybe, change their lives for the better, even by just a little bit.

Jumping into writing

Once I’d decided to join, choosing what to write about was my next challenge. My girlfriend and I went through a list of possible topics, and I ended up writing two. I finished the first one — a citations-heavy piece on workaholism — fairly quickly, but I was unhappy with it.

The second article, on the other hand, took me a bit of time to complete. I wanted to write about smoking, but I didn’t want it to be just like every other article listing down its ill effects on the smoker’s body. That approach has been tried a thousand times, and it still hasn’t worked.

Instead, I chose to explore another angle: secondhand smoke. I wanted people to read my article and realize the repercussions of this destructive habit, not on themselves, but on their loved ones.

I found the perfect framing device: My interview with a woman who was diagnosed with COPD (smoker’s cough) and developed a hole in her lung, despite never having smoked a single stick in her entire life.

By the time I finished writing my story, I felt emotionally exhausted. I was done with thinking about whether I would win or not. In fact, I was preparing for the possibility of reworking it and having it published elsewhere in case it didn’t make the cut.

Far more than any other science article I’ve ever written, I wanted people to be able to read this one.

Other Filipinos

That’s why I was genuinely surprised when I received the email. My entry was selected to be one of this year’s Merit Awardees, which meant going to Singapore to join the rest of the winners — including two other Filipinos, Mr. Luis Wilfrido Atienza and Mr. Mark Ivan Roblas — in an awarding ceremony with some of the country’s science heavyweights, including Assistant Professor Juliana Chan, editor-in-chief of Asian Scientist Magazine, and Associate Professor Lim Tit Meng, chief executive of Science Centre Singapore.

While I was there, I visited the Lee Kong Chian Natural History Museum, the Singapore Botanic Gardens, and other wonderful sights. I marveled at how Singapore places such a premium on science and technology, and found myself wishing that I could live long enough to see the Philippines do the same.

I was also fortunate enough to get the chance to meet and listen to Dr. Jorge Cham, roboticist and creator of the popular “PHD Comics” series. In his parting words for us, he quoted a US president, to inspire us to continue to pursue science-related endeavors.

The quote was short, timely, and telling: “The concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese in order to make US manufacturing non-competitive.”

Now more than ever

Indeed, in a world where willfully ignorant anti-science men hold positions of power, science communicators are needed more than ever. In bridging the gap between the academe and the public, we can prove that there’s no need to (in the spirit of Donald Trump’s favorite catchphrase) “make science great again.”

Because it always was, and always will be; we just need everyone to see it.

As for me, I’ll just keep writing.

I plan to join more competitions and learn even more about the sciences. More importantly, though, I plan to continue playing my small role in this vast field; to make science accessible and enjoyable for everyone and, if I’m lucky, to maybe inspire others to do the same.

I look forward to the day when I read about Filipinos winning the top prizes at international science writing competitions… and when “Eh ‘di ikaw na ang matalino!” becomes nothing more than an embarrassing footnote in the history of our nation’s collective vocabulary.

Mikael Angelo Francisco is a contributor to GMA News Online's Science and Technology section, and was one of only three Filipinos to win in the 2017 Asian Scientist Writers Prize.

The views expressed in this essay do not represent the views of this website.