Great ideas of science
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1) The big bang
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Explains how scientists' observations of the stars led to the development of the big bang theory, a theory of how our universe was formed.
2) Evolution
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Learn about Darwin's revolutionary theory.
3) Genetics
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If a black dog and a white dog have puppies, what color will the puppies be? Genetic scientists have been trying to answer this question for hundreds of years. Genetics is the science of heredity-how traits are passed from parents to offspring. One of the first breakthroughs came from Gregor Mendel, a nineteenth-century monk who spent eight years breeding thousands of pea plants. Pea plants might seem pretty different from dogs, but on a microscopic...
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What is matter made of? Scientists have been trying to answer this question for thousands of years. The concept of the atom-the tiniest fragment of a substance that still retains the characteristics of that substance-goes back to the Greek philosopher Leucippus, who lived in about 450 b.c. In the mid-1600s, Robert Boyle provided experimental evidence that atoms did, indeed, exist. And in 1897, British physicist Joseph John Thomson discovered the first...
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How are polar bears related to pandas? For thousands of years, philosophers and scientists have tried to organize and understand, or classify, the relationships among Earth's animals and plants. Early classification systems were cumbersome and inconsistent. In the late 1720s, Carl Linnaeus began developing a classification system to describe relationships among all living things, including animals, plants, fungi, and bacteria. This organization, called...
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Since prehistoric times, people have been fascinated by electricity and magnetism. Ancient people marveled at the auroras-streaks of colored light that appear in the night sky near the poles. They wondered about the ability of materials such as amber and magnetite rock to attract or repel other objects. Many people believed magic was behind these phenomena. Then, in the 1600s, scientists began to lift the fog of superstition. Electricity and magnetism...