Eureka
Discovering Your Inner Scientist
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
When it comes to science, too often people say "I just don't have the brains for it" -- and leave it at that. Why is science so intimidating, and why do people let themselves feel this way? What makes one person a scientist and another disinclined even to learn how to read graphs? The idea that scientists are people who wear lab coats and are somehow smarter than the rest of us is a common, yet dangerous, misconception that puts science on an intimidating pedestal. How did science become so divorced from everyday experience?
In Eureka, science popularizer Chad Orzel argues that even the people who are most forthright about hating science are doing science, often without even knowing it. Orzel shows that science is central to the human experience: every human can think like a scientist, and regularly does so in the course of everyday activities. The common misconception is that science is a body of (boring, abstract, often mathematical) facts. In truth, science is a process: Looking at the world, Thinking about what makes it work, Testing your mental model by comparing it to reality, and Telling others about your results -- all things that people do daily. By revealing the connection between the everyday activities that people do -- solving crossword puzzles, playing sports, or even watching mystery shows on television -- and the processes used to make great scientific discoveries, Eureka shows that this process is one everybody uses regularly, and something that anyone can do.
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We all have an inner scientist, and Orzel, a professor of physics at Union College, says we put those inner scientists to work every day whether we realize it or not. Orzel winnows down science to four basic steps: "Looking" involves collecting observations and searching for patterns, as Darwin did to create his theory on the origin of species. "Thinking" means reviewing your data and coming up with an explanation a model for what you've seen, the way Dmitri Mendeleev studied chemical properties of different substances to create the periodic table of the elements. "Testing" means devising experiments to test your model, as physicists did to determine what atoms are made of. "Telling" is sharing the story of your work with others. His vivid examples include pop culture touchstones Iron Chef and Where's Waldo?, fantasy sports leagues, and the citizen-scientist organization Zooniverse. Orzel also enlivens the work with glimpses of fascinating scientists such as physicist Richard Feynman and astronomer Vera Rubin, whose work allowed scientists to deduce the presence of dark matter in galaxies. This fun, diverse, and accessible look at how science works will convert even the biggest science phobe.