Scientific discoveries aren't made only by professionals. Amateur and citizen scientists have made many discoveries that working scientists use. In fact, many institutions-including NASA-rely on the work and discoveries of amateurs. Amateur scientists have discovered significant dinosaur fossils, found new species of plants, and identified new comets and asteroids. Their discoveries have been published in scientific journals and books. Written by the foremost amateur scientist in the U.S. today, Forrest Mims' Science Experiments covers many ways you can enter the world of amateur science. You'll learn the essential skills, methods, and procedures that you need to begin working, thinking, inquiring, and recording like a real scientist. With This Book, You'll Learn How To: Study tree rings, Investigate the different things that snow can do, Modify and mount temperature sensors, Sense and record movement as with an optical fiber seismometer, Construct automatic sunshine recorders, Use and calibrate your own essential tool, the infrared thermometer, Capture and study airborne particles with your own air sampler, Track the most important greenhouse gas, Build a twilight photometer that can measure to the top of the stratosphere, Extract scientific data from digital images-and make music from the data, Use a digital scanner to assist with essential scientific inquiries, Mine data to most efficiently glean online info, properly record your scientific inquiries-and discoveries!, Organize your own space-themed Mars-bot competition, Photograph the solar aureole, which you can't see with your bare eyes, Use LEDs to detect light and track nighttime projectiles, You'll even learn fun facts about Thomas Jefferson, the first Maker president; how the PC revolution took off; and what to do when things fail-because they will! Failure is part of learning and part of making, but there's no time to worry about that-you have so much to learn, explore, analyze, discover, and make! Book jacket.