Hope comes in curious forms, and from curious places. It can be said that hope is a thing to practice, not a feeling. Science is not a place devoid of hope, nor is it a place devoid of the brilliance, bravado, impatience or persistence of humans. Roberta Kwok’s Lost In Curiosity: Field Notes from Scientists’ Adventures into the Unknown is scientific observation in prose form, spanning from the subjects of astronomy to climate change and ranging from observations of coyotes as part of social justice to how the mapping of pandemics works with molecular biologists. From glacial melt to the crumbling of paper, the reader is reminded, anything can be engaged with curiosity.
Within each subject, there is a story of a place where humans, a question and nature converge, in simple terms. One reading the book could argue that it is more like observing the scientists observing but through her accessible storytelling form, as well as the wide range of subjects, the reader is reminded: Science is made of humans. Science has our arrogances and our worries, science is as deep and wide as our ability to be curious, to fumble around lost. Science is not a binaried system of intense explosive changes and fiery ‘aha’ moments balanced out by nothing of note. Science is made of noticing. It is made of noticing, of questioning, of collaborating, of error and persistence.
If until this moment, science has appeared hard-lined, black and white and a subject outside of you, Kwok’s Lost in Curiosity will make you uncomfortable. But it is the kind of discomfort that makes space for curiosity. And as woven into each story, where humans in the role of scientist come up against error, against span of time, against failure after failure after failure, again and again, the data in the prose reveals curiosity.
And curiosity is how humans practice hope.
So if you are curious, give this prose science read a try.
If you are curious and looking for a crowd, Roberta Kwok reads from her book at Third Place Books Ravenna at 6504 20th Avenue NE in Seattle on July 21, 2026 at 7pm. For details, call 206-525-2347.
