A new booklet1 entitled The structures of life has just been published by the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS), a component of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in the USA. According to Alisa Zapp Machalek, an NIGMS science writer, this publication is "geared toward an advanced high school or early college level audience [and] explains how structural biology provides insight into health and disease. The booklet contains a general introduction to proteins, a chapter each on X-ray crystallography and NMR, and a chapter on structure-based drug design. It also features 'Student Snapshots' designed to inspire young people to consider careers in biomedical research."
This booklet, one of a series of free educational materials published by the NIGMS, is pitched at exactly the right level for its intended audience. It provides a good grounding in the basics of structural biology without being condescending or trite — a difficult task indeed. As long as someone has already learned a few basic principles elsewhere (such as the roles of DNA and RNA, the definition of an enzyme, and so forth), then the descriptions of the structural techniques and the examples of results can be understood in surprising detail. Already, the NIGMS has received numerous requests for copies, which researchers are giving to prospective students who are in the early stages of sorting out where to direct their careers.
The NIGMS definitely has the right idea — we need to encourage more students to study science, especially biology. Why? Even a cursory glimpse at headlines from around the world should answer this question. Every day, people are confronted with biological issues and problems — such as mad cow disease, foot and mouth disease, AIDS, genetically modified foods, the debate about stem cell research, new treatment options for cancer, and the cloning of mammals. Perhaps most notably, the recent sequencing of the human genome has brought biological research to the forefront of the average person's mind. As a result, many people who lack a basic understanding of biological science are confused, and perhaps frightened, by the possibilities of a future that relies so heavily on new scientific discoveries.
Unfortunately, reliable information about such issues can be difficult for the average person to find, even when such information is key for making informed political and personal decisions. Most people rely upon newspapers and television for information, and while there are many excellent science writers and reporters, overall the media is not well known for providing solid scientific facts or in depth analyses of complicated issues. Thus, any effort to encourage young people to study science should be welcomed.
Another such effort is the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's new OpenCourseWare initiative2, a bold plan that could have a widespread effect on science education well beyond the classrooms at MIT. MIT plans to post much of its course material — such as lecture notes, problem sets, videos of lectures, and so forth — on the internet, to be freely accessible to anyone. The participation of the faculty will be voluntary, but there has been much enthusiasm at MIT for the proposal. If financial support comes through as hoped (they are now searching for funding partners to help cover the start-up and maintenance costs), MIT will begin a pilot project in the Fall of 2001. The initial aim is to make the materials for over 500 courses available; long term, they hope to provide over 2,000 courses covering the broad range of MIT's curriculum.
What is unique about MIT's plan is that the material will be free to everyone with internet access, and no degrees will be given for course 'attendance' — in other words, this is not meant to be a revenue-generating, distance-learning proposal. Instead, the hope is that MIT's initiative, and others like it, will increase the level of science teaching around the world. How? Anyone who has ever had to develop course materials from scratch should be able to attest to the value of such a resource — the availability of the course raw materials should help teachers at many levels prepare lesson plans at their own schools. In addition, to many students in foreign countries, where access to top quality textbooks and learning materials may be limited, this should be a valuable resource.
As we head into a future certain to be greatly affected by biological research, we must commit to educating the world's population in the scientific method and basic biology. MIT's OpenCourseWare initiative and educational materials such as those put forth by the NIGMS represent steps in the right direction, but they are mostly aimed at individuals who are advancing on to higher learning. What is really needed is a commitment and infrastructure to educate children in the basics of how research is performed (which could be done at the elementary school level) and how cells work (which could be done at the middle or high school level). Just as young students are now taught how to read, write, and do math, they should learn from their own experience that, for example, an experiment does not necessarily prove a certain hypothesis, rather it rules out other interpretations. They should also learn about a cell's complex machinery, and how the aberrant behavior of that machinery can lead to diseases such as cancer. Around the world, the educational systems that instruct our children should adopt a more sophisticated level of scientific and biological literacy. Such a move would promote a greater awareness and appreciation of science, thereby allowing more informed decisions on scientific issues that arise in the public realm.
