Why I Teach

This is my daughter Madeline:

Several independent studies have confirmed that she is the cutest child on the planet (plus or minus 5%, 19 times out of 20). She means the world to me, but by the time she's grown, the world is going to be dealing with the consequences of our generation's short-sightedness. Climate change, resource shortages, drug-resistant diseases—the list is a long one, and the only things that will save us are more science and more courage.

That's why I teach. I teach because I need your help to make this world fit for her to live in. I teach because I need you to discover more and invent faster so that the world she inherits from you will be better than the one you're inheriting from my generation. Science is not just the greatest adventure of our time: it is, quite literally, a matter of life and death, and I hope that what we have taught you will help you do it better.

Thank you for your time: may you always see the world through the eyes of a child.