Dropping Science

I've been on a science reading kick lately. I picked up Michio Kaku's The Physics of the Impossible months ago but, because of class work, I am just finishing it now. Since school is out I am starving to read for fun again. There is nothing like a dull textbook or a poorly written article to test the limits of one's love of reading. No wonder we have problems getting kids interested in reading. We make them read terribly boring, flat literature and then expect them to pick up a book for fun. I can feel your pain, little ones. (Which isn't to say that my class was not interesting; just the most of the reading was boring)

This is why I loved Michio Kaku's book so much. Here we have a book on Physics, something I know nothing about & have trouble understanding, but Michio managed to make it exciting and adventurous. I now have thirst for more on the topic, but I don't want to be dulled back into tv watching or internet surfing if I happen to pick up a dull science book. It's truly amazing when a great writer manages to turn the mundane and intellectually difficult into something that is not just palatable, but hugely exciting. Let me put it this way, certain times while reading Michio's book, I got so excited about the science in it, that I felt little tingles in my body. The kind of playful tingles that usually accompany laughter except this was brought on from simply having parts of quantum physics explained to me. Although, I am still trying to wrap my head around the differences between anti-matter, negative matter, and dark matter. (Also, did you know that time travel is theoretically possible in the laws of physics? I mean, this stuff is so crazy!)

Last night I decided it was time to expand my science kick into Richard Feynman. Professor Feynman is known for his QED (quantum electrodynamics) theory, but I don't think I'm quite ready to tackle that book yet. Instead I bought "Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!" which is an biographical essay book about funny and interesting moments in Professor Feynman's life. I think I'll ease my way into his theories from here.

I also stumbled upon this amazing documentary on NOVA called Parallel Worlds, Parallel Lives about the lead singer of the band The Eels whose father just happened to be a brilliant physicists. His father's ideas were rejected by the field at the time, but are experiencing a resurgence in academia today. His father died rather young & the son is just now getting around to learning about his father's controversial theory (regarding parallel universes) and exploring his father's life. It was really, really good as well as really informative. That's the kind of science dropping I love. I love the idea of putting science into the context of the people exploring it. Maybe it is just my learning style, but I need the human side of the story to better understand the strict factual side of science.

As I mentioned, school is out for the summer and I'm enjoying my 6 weeks or so of summer vacation with some great reading, some great running, and visiting some great friends in Oklahoma. Hopefully I will find time to blog more and find topics a little more interesting than this one. I'm easing my way back into this :)