A more in-depth look at this site was warranted when I tried out some of the experiments in my boredom. This is a huge site with a ton of things to do, so I’m going to tell you about some of my favorite parts of this site.
Science of Music — Here you can learn why your voice sounds so good when you sing in the shower, you can learn how opera singers hold those long notes at full volume, or you can play with the exhibits and mix, or remix music to your tastes. I loved the dot mixer exhibit where you can even mix styles. Then you can click the more exhibits button and find tons of neat things like the drum circle, or a space for the blues.
You can explore the anatomy of memory through the dissection of a sheep’s brain, if you can find the link. If not, type in “sheep dissection” in the search engine and click the direct link that will come up and learn all about memory and its secrets.
I highly recommend the cooking section. You can get to it by clicking “Explore” and then look under “Accidental Science”. Here is the cooking sections introduction: “Discover how a pinch of curiosity can improve your cooking! Explore recipes, activities, and Webcasts that will enhance your understanding of the science behind food and cooking.” So you can start in eggs, or you can dive into seasonings, or even get a sweet tooth by visiting the candy section. I adore the candy-o-matic, which explains many of the common cooking terms you’ll read in candy recipes and also shows you the heat it takes to make those confections. I also loved the behind the scenes tour of a candy factory where you can see how it’s all done on a mass production level. Very, very cool! And the Candy from Around the World was a very interesting journey.
Stepping out of the sugar haze that the candy section put me into I headed down to meat, curious as to what scientific niftiness awaited me there. I’ll be honest, I got a lot of my Thanksgiving Turkey tricks from this site. They have a lot to offer in the way of tips and user submitted ideas. I highly recommend the “Fowl Science: Talking Turkey” web cast. (You’ll need to have Real Player to watch it.) You’ll find turkey tricks but you can also learn all about grilling, and share and explore recipes.
You could get lost and hungry in the cooking section but there is so much information and all of it is good, intelligent and fun. Enjoy.