SCIENCESCIENCE "The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and science. Albert Einstein Nothing in life is to be feared. It is only to be understood. Marie Curie A scientist in his laboratory is not a mere technician: he is also a child confronting natural phenomena that impress him as though they were fairy tales. "Science contributes to our culture in many ways, as a creative intellectual activity in its own right, as the light which has served to illuminate man's place in the universe, and as the source of understanding of man's own nature. John F. Kennedy Marie Curie was the first woman to win a Nobel prize and the first person to win two Nobel prizes.

In the field of observation, chance favors only the mind that is prepared. Louis Pasteur God hides things by putting them near us. Ralph Waldo Emerson To acquire knowledge, one must study; but to acquire wisdom, one must observe. Marilyn Vos Savant SCIENCE & OBSERVATION The ability to make careful, complete and unbiased observations is one of the attributes of a great scientist. What do you observe in the following slides? You are one of the rare people who can separate your observation from your perception...you see what is, where most people see what they expect. Tsitsi Dangarembga Tsitsi Dangarembga

Can you find the perfect 5 pointed star in the figure below? It is relatively small and in the bottom half.

Old woman? Young woman? Perhaps one or the other or neither or both. Recorded observations should describe the figure and not come to definitive conclusions about its content. Report your observations about this figure.

A rabbit, looking right? Or a duck, looking left? Or just an artists drawing designed to create disagreement depending on perspective. Report your observations about this figure.

birds, tree?flowers, butterfly? or beautiful women? branches?

Is this a person? Uh, Oh! Not everything is as it appears. Sometimes the brain does not interpret information correctly. In this case and in many other cases, interpretation depends on perspective.

Good doormat? Sure!!!!

Frog? Or Horse?

You should see 58 (upper left), 18 (upper right), E (lower left) and 17 (lower right). If you cannot see any of the above numbers/letters, you may suffer from color blindness. Color Blindness Tests The following are common tests used to detect color blindness. Can you read the numbers or letters hidden in each square?

Can you read the words?

What is above the womans head? Is it a window, a picture or a container on her head? The description of your observation should not depend on your cultural background and should describe the object without concluding what it is.

What is the symbol in the middle? Perception depends on the environment. If you block out the 12 and 14, your answer is probably a B but if you block out the A and C, your answer is probably the number 13.

Both are Bill Clinton.Clinton and Gore (look at the faces) Who are the people in these pictures?

Can you count the black dots?

Are the horizontal lines parallel, or do they slope? Parallel

perfect square! Is the figure a perfect square or is it a trapezoid?

Is the vertical line on the right longer or the same length as the one on the left? same length!

SPIRAL OR CIRCLES?

Is the SUV in the back larger than the one in front? No!!!!!

Is there movement?

Do you believe that A and B are the same color and intensity? If not, watch when the surrounding squares are blacked out! What is the color and intensity relationship between A and B?

Working in a glove box – good science! Or is this bad science?

From Parade Magazine, 12/05/2010 Jack Black is cooking up a reimagined Gullivers Travels…. What is Jack doing that Is against all chemistry safety guidelines?

This is called an "impossible object", which means that it's impossible to build. But drawing it is not impossible, as you see in the image.

Now what do you see? You may not see it at first, but the white spaces create the word OPTICAL, while the blue landscape spells out ILLUSION.

This one is quite interesting! The word TEACH reflects as LEARN.

Arocdnicg to rsceearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosnt mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer are in the rghit pcale. The rset can be a toatl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit pobelrm. Tihs is buseace the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe.

Pick a number between 2 and 10. Multiply the number by 9. Add the two numbers together (e.g., for 18, 1+8 =9). Now subtract 5. Right, now map the result to a letter of the alphabet, where A=1, B=2 and so on. Think of a country which begins with that letter. Take the second letter of the country and think of an animal which begins with that letter. Think of the color of that animal...

You're thinking of a grey elephant from Denmark, right?

Chemists use the mole as a basic unit. One mole is the number of atoms of carbon in 12 g (0.42 oz) of carbon or 602,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 atoms (6.02x10 23 atoms) Would a mole of marshmallows cover the 48 contiguous states of the U.S. ? The three forms of carbon. diamondgraphitebuckyballs

Your first response should be – what size marshmallows? Assuming regular size marshmallows, a mole of marshmallows would cover the United States to a depth of about 600 miles. When you drink a glass of water, you swallow about 10 moles of water or 6 septillion (6x10 24 ) 6,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 molecules of water. Recently it was reported that the Universe has 1/2 of a mole of stars. = 9.6x m = 3.8x10 -9 inches = teeny, tiny!! Notice that water is not linear but bent. As a result, water is polar and has unusual properties.

Each of the two beakers below contains only one substance. Which substance exhibits abnormal behavior? Acetophenone Water Because water is probably the only substance for which you ever see both the liquid and solid phases in the same system, you have probably accepted the observation of its behavior (solid floats in the liquid) as normal. However, if you think about it, the solid should be more dense than the liquid and sink. Almost all substances other than water behave like acetophenone so water (fortunately for us – why?) behaves abnormally. acetophenone water acetic acid dioxane p-xylene oleic acid

The best way to have a good idea is to have a lot of ideas. Linus Pauling (1901 – 1994), the only person to have ever won two unshared Nobel Prizes (Chemistry – 1954, Peace – 1962) He attended Washington High School in Portland but because of a technicality did not receive his diploma until 1962, long after he had received his bachelor's degree from Oregon State College in 1922 and his doctorate from the California Institute of Technology in

For a directory of Internet sites related to climate change and other fossil fuel issues such as ocean acidification, please visit:

Those who dwell, as scientists or laymen, among the beauties and mysteries of the earth, are never alone or weary of life. One way to open your eyes is to ask yourself: What if I had never seen this before? What if I knew I would never see it again? Only within the moment of time represented by the present century has one species -- man -- acquired significant power to alter the nature of his world. Rachel Carson, author of Silent Spring, deserves significant credit for initiating the environmental movement.