This article first appeared in Forum, The Edge Malaysia Weekly on February 5, 2024 - February 11, 2024

Staying and working near the National Stadium in Bukit Jalil is a mixed bag of blessings and challenges. On the positive side, residents in the vicinity get to enjoy the ambient sounds of free concerts and the energetic cheers of football fans during matches. The challenges, however, are in the form of traffic gridlocks, especially before and after events.

A recent encounter with the traffic snarl during a Coldplay performance serves as a vivid reminder of the double-edged nature of this proximity. As much as one may wish for more nights filled with Coldplay’s magical performances, we can only imagine the austerity that the residents need to have to navigate congested roads.

During the Coldplay performance last November, while the band was enchanting hearts (and possibly eardrums) at the National Stadium, many were ensnared in a traffic jam, where the progress was agonisingly slow, with a mere 10km taking a staggering 1½ hours to traverse. In the midst of this vehicular mosh pit, our minds wandered into a realm of thought experiments and deep contemplation. What if society was as captivated by lab coats as it is by leather jackets?

In a whimsical scenario, envision the use of a Rick and Morty-style portal gun to transport us to a dimension where research conferences draw crowds of autograph seekers, Nobel laureates are pursued by paparazzi hungry for their signatures, and headlines celebrate scientific discoveries with the fervour usually reserved for celebrity gossip. Picture a world in which "Scientist Discovers Flying Pizza!" becomes the headline du jour, eclipsing mundane news about a celebrity parting ways with her pet hamster.

This playful hypothetical scenario prompts reflection on society’s values and interests. What if intellectual pursuits and scientific breakthroughs were as glamorised as entertainment and sports? The traffic jam musings lead to a broader contemplation of societal priorities and the potential for a cultural shift towards celebrating knowledge and innovation with the same enthusiasm given to entertainment.

This isn’t a flight of fancy; it is the imminent reality we should be actively cultivating. Science, the unsung rock star, consistently delivers chart-toppers such as vaccines and smartphones, effortlessly tackling problems with the finesse of a Rubik’s Cube virtuoso on overdrive, propelling humanity forward at a velocity that rivals a rocket launch.

Yet, in this arena of groundbreaking discoveries and world-saving, scientists often find themselves overshadowed. Singers and actors, their faces omnipresent on cereal and tissue boxes, dominate popular culture. Perhaps science lacks the drama of a reality show or the catchy tunes of a pop song, but imagine the virality of a revolutionary breakthrough! Memes, retweets — the world would explode in scientific awe.

Consider the irony of a Coldplay concert held amid a downpour, a stark contrast to the sunny disposition of most field scientists. While fans braved the rain for fleeting musical enjoyment, countless scientists toil in nondescript labs, the unsung heroes of progress.

A deduction arises: Artistic products effortlessly touch people’s emotions, making marketing them emotionally appealing. Scientists, being materialists and pragmatists, create products for practical betterment, often devoid of emotional resonance. A cancer patient undergoing chemotherapy might not experience the emotional highs of a Coldplay song, despite the life-saving nature of the treatment.

So, here lies the societal challenge: How can we infuse passion into marketing scientific progress, utilising emotional appeal to propel science into the limelight? How do we cast the spotlight on the researchers and innovators who are reshaping the world with their discoveries? Let’s metamorphose laboratories into vibrant concert halls, transmute research papers into catchy jingles, and catapult scientific breakthroughs into viral sensations.

The world grapples with a concerning decline in the number of STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) students. Today’s youth gauge success through matrices such as TikTok or YouTube subscribers and channel views. These metrics, defined by sponsors to attract lucrative opportunities, dominate the contemporary definition of success. For humanity to advance, however, nurturing future generations of scientists is imperative. Scientists merit acknowledgement not solely within academic journals but also in the collective consciousness of humanity. Envisaging a collaborative landscape in which artists regularly team up with scientists, becoming rock stars together, and fostering a connection between scientific work and emotional resonance, can pave the way for enhanced funding opportunities. This, in turn, serves as an investment in the progress of humanity.

Such a collaborative endeavour has the potential to forge a groundbreaking, revolutionary future—perhaps even more exhilarating than a Coldplay concert (apologies, Chris Martin!).

Dr Goh Bey Hing is professor and head of the Sunway Biofunctional Molecules Discovery Centre (SBMDC), School of Medical at Life Sciences at Sunway University. Dr Low Ley Hian is global alliance lead at Biogenes Technologies Sdn Bhd and senior fellow at the Pacific Research Center.

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