One of the questions from a caller when I was on the “Think” show was about how to keep kids interested in science. As I said, the issue isn’t so much creating in interest as working to not squelch the interest that’s already there. Taking kids to cool places like zoos and science museums is… Continue reading Science-y Gifts for Kids
Category: Book Writing
Advent Calendar of Science Stories 12: Time Tables
Returning to our mostly-chronological ordering after yesterday’s brief excursion, we come to one of the great problems of the 1700’s, namely determining the longitude at sea. Latitude is easy to find, based on the height of the Sun at noon– we told that story last week— but longitude is much trickier. Thanks to the rotation… Continue reading Advent Calendar of Science Stories 12: Time Tables
Eureka: Irish Radio and Book Signing
Two quick notes: — In a little more than half an hour Buttercup will marry Humperdinck I’ll be talking about Eureka on talk radio in Ireland. This was put together very quickly, thus the short notice. — I’ll be signing books this Sunday, the 14th, at The Open Door Bookstore in Schenectady. If you’re in… Continue reading Eureka: Irish Radio and Book Signing
The Problem of Science Stories
Last week Kate pointed me to this post about heroic stories of science saying “This seems relevant to your interests.” And, in fact, a good deal of the post talks about Patricia Fara’s Science: A Four Thousand Year History, the Union library’s copy of which is sitting on my desk, where I had looked something… Continue reading The Problem of Science Stories
Advent Calendar of Science Stories 11: Feynman’s Plate
I’ve been trying to keep to a roughly chronological ordering of these stories, but this slow-motion snow storm that was waiting to greet us on our return from Florida made the schools open on a two-hour delay today, which eats the time I usually use for blogging and books stuff. So I’m going to jump… Continue reading Advent Calendar of Science Stories 11: Feynman’s Plate
Eureka on the Radio
Yesterday, I drove through the slush to Albany to do an appearance on KERA radio’s “Think” from a studio there. The audio is at that link. It was a bit of a strange experience, because I drove to a place to do the interview in a radio studio, but I was the only one in… Continue reading Eureka on the Radio
Advent Calendar of Science Stories 10: Anagrams. Oy.
The final step of the scientific process is to share your results with others, and that’s the step where things are most prone to breaking down. Countless great discoveries have been delayed or temporarily lost because the people who made them were more concerned with protecting “their” secrets than with sharing new knowledge with the… Continue reading Advent Calendar of Science Stories 10: Anagrams. Oy.
Eureka: The Soundtrack
So, you’ve picked up your copy of the just-released Eureka: Discovering Your Inner Scientist— you have bought a copy, right?– and now you’re thinking “I’d love to curl up and read this, but what should I listen to while I do that?” Well, never fear, I’m here to help. Also, I’m really tired, and this… Continue reading Eureka: The Soundtrack
Eureka: Discovering Your Inner Scientist: Release Day!
Today is the official release date for Eureka: Discovering Your Inner Scientist, so of course there are a bunch of exciting things happening: — There’s a short excerpt at the Science of Us blog from New York Magazine. This is a chunk of the Introduction, about how scientists are smart, but not that smart. —… Continue reading Eureka: Discovering Your Inner Scientist: Release Day!
Advent Calendar of Science Stories 9: Newton’s Bodkin
I tooke a bodkine gh & put it betwixt my eye & [the] bone as neare to [the] backside of my eye as I could: & pressing my eye [with the] end of it (soe as to make [the] curvature a, bcdef in my eye) there appeared severall white darke & coloured circles r, s,… Continue reading Advent Calendar of Science Stories 9: Newton’s Bodkin