One of the many things I enjoy about teaching my university class, Science, Feuds, Scandals and Hoaxes, is the opportunity to explore some of the most outrageous ideas ever to gain traction in the public mind. It’s easy to make fun today, but some of these ideas were grounded in reasoning that, though flawed, eventually gave rise to the right answer. Then again, there’s really no defending those doctors who thought that woman was giving birth to rabbit parts.
Petroleum use is rife with environmental and security issues, and first-generation biofuels fall well short of carbon neutrality. Moreover, as global food crops literally lose ground to biofuel production, mounting scarcity is driving up food prices, increasing global hunger and political instability.
But what if we could have our rice and burn it, too? What if we could derive energy from crops without killing them, or generate power using plants and land not needed for food, all through the power of microbes?
Science sharpens our minds to discern proper evidence from flimflam, to tell good experimental design from bad and to separate statistics from exaggerations. More than that, it reveals the beauty and intricacy woven into the very fabric of reality.
In this article, I suggest some easy and fun ways for your family to explore science together.
According to the Simpsons, the Merciless Pepper of Quetzalacatenango is grown by the inmates of a Guatemalan insane asylum deep in the jungle primeval. Homer resorted to coating his mouth with candle wax to beat the heat of this so-called Guatemalan Insanity Pepper. In this article, I’ll try to give you some better options while I answer the piquant question…