Science in the Library
Science class was always so much fun when I was a kid. We did cool experiments, like turning white flowers pink and blue with food coloring, and we made some crazy stuff, like slime and some small explosions (always contained and nothing too dangerous). It allowed for me to explore the world around me, touch it and interact with it. So many of my questions about the world were answered in science class. Like why I would never find the end of a rainbow or how the earth rotates to create night and day.
As an adult I try to keep some childlike wonder about the world and continue learning about how the world works, and apparently I am not alone. The success of Neil deGrasse Tyson’s Astrophysics for People in a Hurry shows that. He takes esoteric topics and breaks them down in a way that is not only understandable, but also funny and entertaining.
There is also a growing desire to understand how our minds and bodies work. Books such as When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi and The Brain by David Eagleman explain how our minds and bodies function to create you. This allows for a better understanding of the world as well as ourselves.
Not only are factual science books gaining a wider audience, but so are science fiction novels. Ernest Cline’s Ready Player One combines old eighties video games with a futuristic technology to create Wade Watt’s dystopian world. There is a growing demand for accuracy in the science and technology presented in these novels. There is a growing desire for accuracy and believability in this futuristic or alternate world.
Continuing to explore and understand the world around us is important to keep that fascination, and instilling that desire to understand at a young age is important as well. Not only do we have a lot of book to explain the world to kids here at the library, but this week we are giving kids the ability to interact with science. Mad Science is coming to the library this Thursday to give kids a chance to get hands on experience with science.
So, whether you are a kid or an adult we have all kinds of new ways to learn about the world and yourself here at the library.
