Josiah Bildner
How do you prove an impossible idea?
With courage, perseverance, and a lot of luck!
In 1915, British astronomer Arthur Stanley Eddington was fascinated with Einstein's new theory of general relativity. The theory talks about how forces push and pull objects in space. Einstein said that the sun's gravity could pull and bend light.
To test this, astronomers decided to photograph a solar eclipse. The eclipse would allow
...The stage was set for a showdown: Man v. Machine.
On March 9, 2016, the AlphaGo artificial intelligence computer program played the board game, GO, against the world champion, Lee Sedol.
Who would win? The human or the machine?
The Game: Go is the oldest board game in the world. Games are perfect tests for A.I
...Amazing fact: The Argonauta octopus creates a delicate shell for itself which it used to travel up and down in the water and as a safe place to raise its young.
At the time, though, the only way to study a marine animal was if it was dead on land. That...
NSTA Outstanding Science Trade Book
What if your science experiments were so interesting that even an Emperor wanted to know more?
In 1806, scientist Ernst Chladni (KLOD-nee) left Germany for a three-year road trip, entertaining Europeans with his science.
He made wires, columns of air, and solids vibrate. He wrote about this in his native German language, but his French scientist friends wanted to read about it in French.
...Washington had a solution: ask his engineer Rufus Putnam to solve the problem. They needed to take control of the high ground, Dorchester Heights, just south of Boston. They could place cannons there to bombard the British army.
Cannons on Dorchester Heights mean the colonials needed...
Ages 7-12
Can humans save a species from extinction? Yes! With patience, persistence, and a full dose of hope.
This is the heartbreaking tale of a Galápagos giant tortoise species that was almost extinct, the herculean task of conservation work by scientists and volunteers, and a heartwarming tale of hope for our planet.
In 1959, Ecuador established a national park to protect the Galápagos Islands. When they did a census, scientists
...A week? A month? A year? No. Sometimes it takes much longer! Scientists need lots of patience.
On January 25, 1862, naturalist Charles Darwin received a box of orchids. One flower, the Madagascar star orchid, fascinated him. It had an 11.5" nectary, the place where flowers make nectar, the sweet liquid that insects and birds eat. How, he wondered, did insects pollinate the
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