When Yuri Gagarin, the Soviet pilot and cosmonaut, became the first human to travel into space on April 12, 1961, American officials and the scientific community in the United States struggled to cope with the shock. At first, they could not understand how or why the Soviet Union had managed to outpace the USA in the space race.

An ad-hoc commission was then formed to determine the causes of this setback. After deep reflection and extensive investigation, the commission reached a rather unexpected and surprising conclusion: the flaw lay in… the teaching of mathematics in middle school!

This episode highlights the importance of acquiring a scientific way of thinking and a scientific culture from an early age. Learning science is not merely a matter of following a school curriculum. Acquiring a scientific culture should indeed be as broad as possible in a world experiencing exponential growth in technological knowledge. But it is not just about accumulating knowledge quantitatively. The stakes are much higher, more strategic, in terms of human development and, more broadly, for humanity as a whole. It is about developing a mindset, a structured way of thinking.

The value of a media outlet dedicated to science popularization and simplified scientific news across different fields, whether fundamental or applied, is precisely to guide the next generation in this process of adopting a scientific mindset. Contrary to popular belief, such a structured way of thinking is useful not only in the sciences but also across a wide range of professions and activities far removed from the technical or scientific domains, including the humanities and social sciences. Journalism and education, to name just two examples, illustrate this perfectly.

A scientific media outlet in Lebanon may seem like an odd idea, given the prevailing climate of despair and the ongoing war. Yet, it is precisely in such circumstances that young people need to gradually acquire a scientific and rational way of thinking. Perhaps, in the long term—or at least to some extent—we could then halt, or at least slow down, our dizzying freefall into chaos.