The World's Most Exciting Innovation Needs You

While playing hooky from elementary school, I developed an obsession that continues to this day. I skipped out to attend a physics lecture at Columbia University, and my world was rocked when I learned about quarks. Since then, I've been completely fascinated by science.

Every day, we benefit in ways we can't imagine from the hard work of complete strangers we've never met. This happens so often that it's easy to take it for granted. Advances in technology, medical care and education don't just happen on their own. Countless people have teamed up, sometimes in different eras in different places, to take the long arc of human ingenuity to new levels. All of us are the beneficiaries.

Imagine the World You Want

On Friday, I will be part of a panel, "Women for Science: Imagine the World you Want and Make it Happen!" at S.H.E. Summit. The title of the panel has two of my favorite things in it: science and imagination.

The question of whether curiosity can be monetized always comes up in response to the funding of scientific research. This is the wrong question. Dead wrong. The moon shot might have been inspired by the arms race, but it gave us a glimpse of the tiny blue planet that we share, and we couldn't have predicted the impact. Take a look around at the world. Of course scientific research can be monetized. But that's not why I support it.

I support scientific research because we have an obligation to make life better through scientific advances. I support it because I think we can find solutions to the problems that plague us, from disease to mass addiction to fossil fuels. I believe that in understanding the way our brains work, we can start to understand, and reverse, our misguided social perceptions, like racism and sexism, which exist largely because our brains don't like to burn extra energy and it's easier to categorize than it is to contextualize. This is why I am a Weizmann Advocate for Curiosity, in support of science for the benefit of humanity. Scientists at Weizmann work across disciplines to deliver some of the most futuristic excellence in the world. Learning about what's happening at Weizmann is like being in a science fiction film, except it's all really happening. And it makes all of our lives better.

The Most Exciting Innovation on the Planet

I will confess that I have an ulterior motive. I want to support people who contribute to the collective intelligence of our species. Science, hands down, offers the most exciting innovation taking place on our planet, and maybe anywhere in the cosmos. The culture of collaboration and the spirit of pure research innovation makes Weizmann one of the world's most brilliant places. You can support them too (tell them I sent you!)

I'm thrilled to share the stage at the legendary 92nd St Y with fellow panelists Tracy Day, four-time Emmy Award-winning journalist and co-founder of the World Science Festival with world-renowned physicist and best-selling author Brian Greene; Rachel Rothman, the Technical and Engineering Director for the Good Housekeeping Research Institute and John Gerzema, the Executive Chairman of Burson Marsteller's BAV Consulting and author of "The Athena Doctrine: How Women (and Men Who Think Like Them) Will Rule the World."

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Rita J King is the EVP for Business Development at Science House, a cathedral of the imagination in Manhattan focused on the art and science of doing business. She is a strategist who specializes in the development of collaborative culture by making organizational culture visible so it can be measured and transformed. She makes Mystery Jars, writes about the future for Fast Company and invents story architecture, characters and novel technologies for film and TV as a futurist for the Science and Entertainment Exchange. Follow @RitaJKing on Twitter.