The official definition of a “scientist” is sort of obscure. Cambridge Dictionary defines it as “an expert who studies or works in one of the sciences.” Job web site Randstad will get extra poetic with “scientists explore their curiosity and use scientific activities to understand, describe, and predict happenings in the world.” Inspiring, positive, but to anybody who didn’t take physics or biology in faculty, there’s nonetheless a really particular picture conjured. People in white coats. Formulas scribbled on boards. Potions brewing in labs. Numbers. Dense ideas. Head-scratching.
But what if we don’t even have to review science from a scientific perspective? Amanda Phingbodhipakkiya studied neuroscience at Columbia University and even labored at an Alzheimer’s analysis lab. Today, she is utilizing her background and a grasp’s diploma in tremendous arts to showcase women in STEM through art and design. Alan Lightman, physicist and novelist, is the first particular person at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to obtain twin college appointments in science and humanities, typically utilizing his writing to discover the intersection of science, philosophy, faith, and ethics.
At the finish of the day, the discipline isn’t siloed from the remainder of the world. Physics, biology, chemistry – they’re deeply intertwined with society. Science shapes the world we reside in, and society, in flip, shapes science.
The phrase “scientist” sounds easy sufficient — till you attempt to pin it down. Our thoughts conjures photos of individuals in white coats scribbling formulation on boards or mixing potions in labs. Official definitions aren’t any a lot assist both. Cambridge Dictionary defines it as “an expert who studies or works in one of the sciences.” Job web site Randstad will get extra poetic with “scientists explore their curiosity and use scientific activities to understand, describe, and predict the happenings in the world.” Inspiring, positive. But to anybody who didn’t take physics or biology in faculty, it nonetheless sounds intimidating. Numbers. Dense ideas. Endless head-scratching.
But what if don’t even have to review science from a scientific perspective? At the finish of the day, the discipline isn’t siloed from the remainder of the world. Physics, biology, chemistry – they’re deeply intertwined with society. Science shapes the world we reside in, and society, in flip, shapes science.
University College London
UCL is ranked #9 in the QS World University Rankings 2026, a testomony to its international affect. Source: University College London
Not a fan of equations? Never pictured your self in a lab coat? Well, it’s time for a rethink. University College London, — ranked ninth in the world by QS as of 2026 — is right here to remind you that pursuing science-related programmes doesn’t should seem like crunching numbers or proving hypotheses in the lab daily.
UCL Science and Technology Studies programmes are designed in a different way. They allow you to research a various mixture of topics throughout historical past, philosophy and sociology of science in response to urgent issues like extinction, misinformation and AI. No different division provides this mix or prepares you fairly as nicely to form pressing and efficient responses to international challenges.
Just have a look at the vary of subjects coated: local weather change, misinformation, vaccine hesitance, the influence of AI or brain-computer interfaces. You will discover every thing from pandemics to driverless automobiles. Here, it’s much less about how these items work however extra on science and expertise transfer the world.
Feeling impressed? The catalogue of programmes so that you can select from is each wide-ranging and refreshingly completely different. Explore the previous and current of science, expertise and drugs in addition to their international complexity with the History and Philosophy of Science BSc (the solely full BSc of its variety in the UK), or decode the position of expertise and science in constructing our world with the Sociology and Politics of Science BSc (typically often called “PPE for the 21st century”). Accelerate your profession with a master’s degree, postgraduate diploma, or certificate, or contribute to the discipline by analysis with an MPhil or PhD.
In all programmes, you’ll study from passionate professors who’re revolutionary lecturers and globally revered leaders in their fields. The information and expertise you’ll acquire from them are set to be huge and versatile, setting you up for a variety of roles. Analytical reasoning, essential considering, programs considering – these are precisely what employers in journalism, coverage, and consulting discover indispensable at the moment, and what you’ll be geared up with as an STS graduate.
If you’re nonetheless fearful about profession alternatives, don’t. Your diploma will stand out for its STEM focus with rigorous social science and humanities coaching, a mixture that opens a wider vary of profession pathways than social science or humanities alone. Graduates are pursuing careers in STEM-related fields and in extra conventional social science and humanities locations, together with coverage, legislation, enterprise, NGOs, and tradition and media.
Being based mostly in London offers you one other edge. This is a metropolis that buzzes with alternative, teeming with world-class museums, galleries, and analysis and improvement – with UCL at the centre of all of it. As a pupil right here, jobs, internships, placements, and connections will probably be virtually proper outdoors your lecture halls.
Ready to plug into this power and rethink science levels? Learn more about UCL’s Science and Technology Studies today.
Stanford University
Study the intersection of science, tech, and society at Stanford both as a Bachelor of Arts or Bachelor of Science. Source: Stanford University/Facebook
Discovering limitations to younger folks feeling real connections, together with the widespread perception that these round them don’t care. Developing a extra resilient variant of corn that may face up to the rising droughts attributable to local weather change. Using DNA from rescued captive tigers to create a blueprint that helps establish tigers appropriate for conservation and prosecute animal abusers. Leveraging expertise to create artwork whereas additionally critiquing expertise in the course of.
When Stanford University first opened in 1891, the variety of departments didn’t evaluate to the establishment’s present measurement. You had chemistry, drawing, arithmetic, English language and literature, political science, psychology, and extra. Today, many of those founding departments have been collated into one single faculty: the School of Humanities and Sciences. It’s the centre of the liberal arts at Stanford, comprising 24 departments and 25 interdisciplinary programmes. The analysis initiatives talked about above are solely a small fraction of what makes Stanford a pioneer for innovation.
If you’re trying to delve into the complexities of science and the way it impacts the social world, the Science, Technology, and Society (STS) programme is the place you want to be. Instead of the curricula you’ll encounter in typical, pure science fields, the STS is a programme that may equip you with expertise in each technical and social frameworks. You will undertake core programs in social sciences, humanities, the pure and bodily sciences, and engineering, and proceed to specialise in one in all seven areas. Depending in your profession objectives, you could pursue the programme as a Bachelor of Arts or Bachelor of Science and collaborate with skilled college throughout a dozen departments.
No matter which specialisation you select, which sort of diploma you pursue, the alternatives provided by the programme stay huge. The STS typically sponsors varied occasions the place college students can community with their friends and programme alumni, alongside discovering analysis and internship roles to advance their careers. Research takes priority at the School of Humanities and Sciences, the place college, workers, and college students make use of various views to advance society.
Australian National University
Tackle local weather change by coverage at ANU. Source: Australian National University/Facebook
At the Australian National University (ANU) — ranked #32 in the QS World University Rankings 2026 — skilled college, workers, and college students are shaping public coverage by training, analysis, and engagement. The Crawford School of Public Policy is a frontrunner amongst graduate faculties all through Asia and the Pacific, dwelling to a few of the most influential researchers lively in roles throughout authorities, enterprise, and civil society.
Their analysis transcends borders. One PhD candidate sought to grasp the results of coverage incentives on photo voltaic adoption and family power prices in Australia, whereas one other targeted on the intersections of degrowth, zero waste, and alternate options to improvement all through the Global South. Faculty members typically facilitate vital conversations on a variety of subjects, from the influence of monetary deregulation on agricultural labour productiveness in rural China to the social, cultural, and financial advantages that privately protected areas in Australia pose for land conservation.
If you’re keen about combating one in all the best threats to humanity’s long-term survival at the moment, then Crawford has a grasp’s programme designed only for you. The Master of Climate Change combines college experience from each Crawford and the extremely acclaimed Fenner School of Environment and Society to ship a programme that explores local weather change science and coverage in-depth, which incorporates subjects throughout economics, legislation, and governance features, offering strategic perception into the challenge.
Across a 12 months and a half, you’ll expertise programs that encourage open, protected, and strong dialogue — and the similar goes even when you’re pursuing the programme on-line. The diploma is customisable, permitting college students to pursue a various vary of obligatory and elective programs relying on their profession objectives. The information and talent set you’ll construct are grounded in real-world coverage, complemented by a work-integrated studying programme in which college students can immerse themselves in an organisation and acquire skilled expertise.