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.
Road trips answer a deep human yearning to be free. For a time at least, they allow us to escape our quotidian cares and simply be. At the same time, they indulge our love affair with automobiles and our craving for novelty. As authors such as Jack Kerouac remind us, the road is where we discover our country, our fellow human beings—and ourselves.
Why is the sky blue? Everyone supposedly knows, but just about everybody gets it partially wrong. Don’t feel bad, though; the answer has so many parts, it took philosophers and scientists from Aristotle to Maxwell to answer it.
Besides, it’s a bit of a trick question …
What’s hard and scaly and dwells in your pipes? Find out in this article, where I show you why plastic beads aren’t just for Mardi Gras.
Some say the world will end in fire; some say ice. Others prefer to trot out obscure scientific theories. Strange as it might seem, the pole shift hypothesis, in which the Earth’s crust and mantle (or outermost layers) move as one piece, did not spring from the fevered imaginations of the sandwich-board set, but from scientific circles, and it’s rooted solidly in physics.
Of course, that doesn’t mean Hollywood got it right …