No one starts with a peer reviewed journal article. Most, if not all people, start with a cool experiment or demo or see or handle a cool critter/plant.

PhD here.

Be interested in whatever you want. Someone else said speculative fiction. I’m not aware of a scientist who didn’t grow up reading that. Just be curious and care about if you’re correct.

Young people now just don’t have easy access to popular science from people who are telling them the truth, and I don’t know what to do about that. You need to learn how the basics of reality work before you can gain the proper level of skepticism.

Alternatively:

“I like science when it directly contributes to my quality of life or proves me right, but not when it proves me wrong or needs funding.”

I like it when other people do science and then tell me about the exciting parts.

You can like science without being a degreed research scientist. There is plenty of good science content out there that’s easy to understand.

Me watching my silly little videos about silly little Ordovician fossils and how they may or may not be a sponge.

I miss my Jstore membership

But that’s the thing. The average person has no need to know the deep nuts and bolts of science. Being enthusiastic and engaged with it is far better than willingly being blind and ignorant.

For instance, you don’t need to understand the exact mechanism of how anesthesia works in order to very much appreciate it when you’re undergoing testicular surgery.

I love science. Half my feed is various types of science, the other half is politics, and a secret 3rd half is shitposting about both

They like science fiction… Half of that is “science” i guess