I genuinely believe that at the core of what it means for us to be human is our ability to question. I teach a course called Unsolved Mysteries in the Universe. We get to talk about
everything from is there extraterrestrial life to what happens inside black holes to what is the nature of time.

All of these things are fair game in this class. We spent half the first day drawing aliens. And then she said, "Well, why do you think it would look like this?" How do you know it's not invisible? How do you know it's not minuscule? How do you know you could even perceive it? Our bias towards humans was holding us back from being able to comprehend that life doesn't have to look just like us.

It's those types of questions that she asked that get us to start delving into that deeper sense of curiosity, which is what the class is really about. It is so important to teach the students that it's OK to question. Somehow they get in their brains that having a question means you don't understand something, when really asking these deep, meaningful, provocative questions enable us to advance and make progress.

I think it's important to have a class that focuses on things that we don't know because if you only have classes that teach you things that we already know, then what is going to inspire students to pursue those aspects of our lives and those aspects of the universe that we don't know? One of my top goals for the class is for them to leave with a renewed sense of curiosity about the world.

When children are little, they're so curious and they're willing to play with anything and they're not afraid of experimenting. At some point, they lose that and I really try to light that spark. In the grand scheme of things, just because the universe is incomprehensibly large, doesn't mean that you have to be scared of it.

I think it just means that there's so much out there that is left to be learned, and instead of being scared, we should take steps towards learning that. Come in and open your mind. And when you think deeply about those depths of space and darkness, and you allow yourself to have this experience, it'll blow your mind.

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