Science Can Be Fun

Munro Leaf, Science Can Be Fun (1958): title page

Need an antidote to pseudoscience (“creation science,” “intelligent design,” climate change denial)?  Try a few pages from Munro Leaf’s Science Can Be Fun (1958). In its simplified, matter-of-fact approach, the book offers a model of scientific thinking, encouraging readers to observe, measure, and test hypotheses.  Most importantly, it points out that science is based upon empirical, measurable evidence.

Munro Leaf, Science Can Be Fun (1958): page 3

Munro Leaf, Science Can Be Fun (1958): page 4

In the following section of the book, Leaf talks about, as he says, “some of the things we can’t see”:

Munro Leaf, Science Can Be Fun (1958): page 29 (lower half)

Munro Leaf, Science Can Be Fun (1958): page 30

Munro Leaf, Science Can Be Fun (1958): page 31

Munro Leaf, Science Can Be Fun (1958): page 32

Munro Leaf, Science Can Be Fun (1958): page 33

Munro Leaf, Science Can Be Fun (1958): page 34

Sure, there’s a moment or two where Leaf might be more critical of science (despite the book’s optimism, not all discoveries lead to benefits for humankind), but on the whole the book is a healthy affirmation of what we can by – in Leaf’s words – “Looking, Listening and Thinking carefully.”

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