Can you think of a city or community project that represents what is important to you about science communication?

Chicago has a huge biodiversity project that’s been going on for years, Chicago Wilderness. It has many partners, extending across the Midwest, beyond the Chicago region. I like it because one of the most basic principles that I want people to understand is how ecosystems interact. This bee affects this plant, and that affects the food you eat. The species you find in your ecosystem are affected by other ecosystems. This is what biodiversity does for you and your community and this is how your community lacks biodiversity. If people need to know anything, they need to know that their lives and their ecosystems are connected.

Do you feel like hope is inherently a part of field station work?

In a general sense. I think Tyson is probably a manifestation of it, this beautiful sense of curiosity about our world. Scientists and ecological field researchers are all trying to put together puzzle pieces to figure out how intricate our world is and how many overlaps there are. There’s something spiritual, a religious sense in that. There is something more than we can see. That’s super hopeful, that there are people who strive to figure it all out in a way that makes sense. We can’t see everything, or touch or hear everything. But they make tools and microscopes and telescopes that increase our ability to perceive our world. And I think that is super cool.

Is hope harder to find at some moments, than at others?

As beautiful as our world is, it’s crazy out here! Hope is combined with faith. It’s one of those things you have to hold onto; there’s that element of trust, “keeping hope and keeping faith.” But there are times when I set down hope for a minute because I’m angry and want to fight something.

Science is kind of spectacular. Many people are fascinated by it, but don’t feel it’s for them or feel it’s unaccessible. I think kids are natural scientists, they ask question after question after question. But when I was a kid, I didn’t feel like those “why” questions were science. We are telling people they aren’t engaging with science, even when they really are. When you’re not told your curiosity is science, you don’t think you are capable of doing science.