What Matters? The Web Page of Allen Watson III

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Science Matters

Evolution is interesting to me and (apparently) controversial to others. I've just collected all my essays about the science and the controversy under one heading. Evolution Matters

Heres an example of science at its most magnificent: Maxwell's prediction of electromagnetic waves. Maxwell and Light

Many books and movies include a perilous escape across a hostile border. Here's a case from real life that had historic consequences. Escape from Nazi Germany

I've updated this page with a nicer picture of its subject.
Who was Lise Meitner?

The atomic bomb is both a horror weapon and a demonstration of the validity of modern physics. The Mushroom Cloud as Symbol

While thinking about the recent gas explosion and fire in San Bruno, California, I realized that only one concentrated energy source is not explosive: nuclear fuel.

Thanks to a half-silvered mirror, I built my own viewing box and performed some color vision experiments. Color Vision Revisited

Lately I went looking for a place that's dark at night so I could see a Starry Sky.

I've added a page that describes the sodium-light viewing box I saw at the Exploratorium. Land's Sodium Light Viewer

I've updated this page with a better demo of the color vision phenomenon called The Land Effect

A creationist claims evolution — or Darwinism, as he calls it — is a doctrine. Science Is Not Like Religion

Science is a process. Here's an example. How Science Works

The orbits of the planets are ellipses, but can you prove it? Orbits and Inverse Squares

Some ideas expounded in books written in the 20th Century were anticipated by Huxley.

Someone who thinks George W. Bush was a good president asks, "Who has rejected science?"

In 2008, there was a conjunction of the moon, Venus, and Jupiter. Even though the sky was cloudy here in Sunnyvale that evening, here's how I managed to get a picture of the moon and evening stars .

The Sun does not go around the Earth; the Earth really does rotate. The first practical demonstration of that fact was the Foucault Pendulum.

Test your knowledge of the natural world by taking this short quiz.

Why is a battery-less flashlight named after Michael Faraday? The Faraday Flashlight

Here are some short quotations about science.

My father once declared that T. H. Huxley was a crackpot. Here are Huxley's own words; you may judge for yourself. The Words of a Crackpot

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