A collection of science essays covering topics from the big bang to human consciousness.

From the Introduction:

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We have passed through those dark scary nights of monsters under the bed and both the dreams and the reality of being chased by tigers. We have come of age in a vast unknown, uncaring universe with no clues, no explanation, and no reason. We survived; we learned to learn and to use our intellect to devise ever better tools in a self-sustaining cycle of understanding the universe and human nature. The best of those tools is science and the scientific method – just as used by children, though it took us thousands of years as a species to formalize it. As Carl Sagan said, science is "A candle in the dark." It lights our way, lets us see what is hiding in the shadows or under the bed, and provides us with a means of understanding both the universe and ourselves.