Learning science makes life a little easier.
Life-friendly science that brings science to life

Director Lee Jeong-mo, the author, witnessed a strange sight while visiting his mother's house.
The beds in the bedroom were placed diagonally.


“Mom, why did you leave the bed like this?”
“Well, isn’t there a water vein flowing in the living room?
“I left it like this to avoid the water veins.”
“It’s the 12th floor, what kind of water vein is it?
“How did you know there was a water vein flowing down there?”
My mother learned how to find water veins at a cultural course run by the community center and bought a fairly expensive dowsing rod to find water veins.
I explained this and that to my mother and told her to straighten the bed, but this is what she said.

“Eww, what do you scientists know?
“Just leave it!” - Page 134

Science is unlocking the world's secrets one by one with insatiable curiosity and sincerity, but its achievements are not well communicated to the public.
Many people still believe that antibiotics help cure colds, that microwave ovens produce carcinogens, that GMOs are harmful to humans, and that global warming is a myth.
Superstitions and scams without scientific basis, such as dowsing, germanium bracelets, biorhythms, creation science, pyramid power, and perpetual motion machines, are also on the rise.



Each person tries to survive, but each person perishes.
The principles of worldly affairs discovered in the great laboratory of life

"Science is Difficult for Me Too" vividly illustrates how many scientific events we encounter in our ordinary daily lives.
These 62 essays, which explore social issues and aspects of everyday life, offer insights into the world through the eyes of a scientist.
The author presents readers with a new perspective and interpretation by blending basic scientific concepts with the everyday world, making it easy to understand.

For example, the author reflects on the survival strategies of small spring flowers and the lives of each of us living in our own time of survival.
Most flowers that bloom early in spring, such as forsythia, cherry blossoms, and azaleas, are small.
The strategy adopted by these flowers to pollinate and reproduce with the help of insects is to bloom in clusters and in profusion.
To look good to the bees.
The strategy is to spread the flowers in clumps so that the entire tree appears to be a flower, as the small flowers are not easily visible.
However, if each tiny flower tries to survive on its own, it is obvious that even if you try your best to bloom, it will be of no use.
The same goes for humans.

The power of each individual citizen is small.
The path to becoming our masters is to bloom in a hurry and profusely like cherry blossoms.
Now is the time for us to break free.
-Page 52 of the text

The explanation for the cause of bird flu, an uninvited guest that comes every winter, begins with the Earth's rotation and revolution.
Because our country's axis is tilted 23.5 degrees, our country has four distinct seasons, and various life forms come to visit depending on the season.
Just 100 years ago, tigers, Asiatic black bears, and foxes roamed the Korean Peninsula, but most of the animals that visit our country today are birds, and the most numerous are winter migratory birds.
In recent years, as winter migratory birds have been identified as a source of avian influenza, it has become increasingly difficult to talk about feeding migratory birds and protecting their habitats.
However, when AI is rampant, the rate of winter migratory birds dying from AI infection is less than 0.001 percent.
Migratory birds do not die from AI.
Just like people don't die from the flu.
Therefore, the condition of the infected individual is more important than whether or not they are infected. AI is only fatal to individuals living in unhealthy environments.
For example, chickens raised in unsanitary and cramped cages for efficiency reasons, unable to spread their wings, are vulnerable to stress and disease.
It's the same with humans.


If we blame the AI ​​crisis we face almost every year solely on winter migratory birds, we are left with only two solutions.
One is to eliminate all the mudflats where winter migratory birds can find food, and the other is to straighten the Earth's axis, which is tilted 23.5 degrees.
-Pages 230-231

In this way, the author draws all aspects of daily life into science, from objects and phenomena like intestinal bacteria, farts, oversleeping, colds, and microwave ovens to social issues and concerns such as candlelight vigils, pseudo-religions, artificial intelligence, and space immigration.
It reinterprets the complexities of the world from a scientific perspective through life-related science that crosses biochemistry, biology, physics, and astronomy.


Break it, fail
Praise and encourage each other's failures.

The author, Director Lee Jeong-mo, is currently one of the most popular scientists in Korea.
He is evaluated by his fellow scientists as possessing “exceptional wit and quick thinking,” “knowing how to make eye contact with readers” (Professor Jae-Cheon Choi, Ewha Womans University), “full of humor but never losing sight of insight” (Professor Sang-Wook Kim, Department of Physics Education, Pusan ​​National University), and “a scientist who is particularly good at telling stories in an interesting way” (Brain scientist Dong-Sun Jang, Ph.D.).

Although he is a recognized scientist, he says that science is not always easy and fun.


History is difficult, English is difficult, and geography is difficult.
And science is even more difficult.
Where in the world is anything easy? Even without innate talent, like music, art, sports, or dance, it's not like hard work is useless. It's a blessing that you can enjoy something that suits your efforts.
-Page 262

The author volunteers to serve as a bridge to help people understand science properly, even if it is somewhat difficult.
He describes himself as a "science communicator," a "mediator" who stands between scientists and citizens.
The author's consistent approach to bridging the gap between science and the public is also reflected in the science museum where he serves as director.
At the Seoul Metropolitan Science Museum, which opened in May 2017, there are no signs that say “Do not touch.”
The director of the Hairy Science Museum is instead thinking about how to get visitors to touch the exhibits more.
They get really excited when visitors destroy the exhibits in ways they never imagined.
Because science is a failure.

He emphasizes that we must create a culture of failure from now on.
Until now, our country has been a country that has copied others' work as quickly and cheaply as possible, so there was no need to fail.
But now it is time to create something completely new, something that has never existed before in this world.
To do that, we need to fail, we need to become accustomed to failure, and we need a culture that encourages each other to fail.
At this time, the scientist's attitude becomes an example for us.


A scientist's daily life is a series of failures.
It succeeds about once in a hundred times.
Scientists are not discouraged by failure.
Because science is inherently a failure.
That's why science can be fun.
If you can't accept failure and become frustrated, you will end up manipulating data and plagiarizing other people's papers.
-Page 49

Scientists are people who fail every day.
Failure to formulate a sound hypothesis and failure to observe, observe, and experiment.
They fail to analyze the data they obtain, write a paper, and get it accepted for publication.
Fail every day, but succeed once in a while.
That success remains in the thesis.
Not many people read the paper either.
But as these papers accumulate, science advances little by little through collective intelligence, and our understanding broadens.

"Science is Difficult for Me Too" helps train a scientific attitude through the process of finding scientific truth in everyday life.
Living in the world with a scientific attitude can help you avoid bad choices, cope with risks, and even make you a little happier.