Hello, darlings, looking fabulous as always. If you’ve been hanging around these parts for any length of time, you’ll have noticed that I love (and create) weird sci-fi. So, no surprise that I’m equally drawn to weird science—even without the fiction. It’s actually extra thrilling to stop and think “this shit is real?!” It’s a fun prompt to stop and look around at the world a little differently, a little more deeply.
My current venture into thruth-is-stranger-than-fiction territory is We Are Electric by Sally Adee. While the idea of electrical impulses traveling our bodies may not seem new, it was quite controversial at the time electricity was being discovered and explored. It was thought to only travel through metal. Galvani noticed that it might also travel through more squishy mediums, like us, and could be responsible for motion in living beings. Drama ensued. Careers were ended and lives ruined for siding with the losing camp (Galvani’s) in this great debate. The universe loves irony, so of course the losing side turned out to be the correct one—we are electric! Plus you get to read about the intrepid scientist who went so far as to stick live wires up his own ass to prove electrical impulses can travel through organic matter. He saw stars! See, stranger than fiction, darlings.
If that’s not enough for you, here’s a little round-up of other books of popular science that have resonated with me over the years.
Alien Earths: A wonderfully breezy read about developments in the search for extra-terrestrial life. Her passion and creativity for her work shine on every page. The prose wanders a lot in a rather stream-of-consciousness style that you don’t normally find in science books—even of the popular variety. Little annoying for me, but your mileage is sure to vary. Regardless, she has a gift for explaining some pretty dense astronomical and cosmological concepts (along with some geology and chemistry along the way).
The Hidden Reality: parallel universes are an enduring, perhaps overused, trope in sci-fi. Why not dig into some fascinating conjecture of just how that might actually work? Greene, author of a number of books on cosmology and astrophysics, goes on a little journey into the theoretical and makes some very interesting stops. (And, naturally, ponders whether or not this is all just a hologram.)
The Light Eaters: While it is a science book, it’s also a reporter’s journey into a world that we interact with (and depend on) every day but rarely notice. At least not the whole story. There’s a whole world of beings communicating with each other—and possibly with us—if we can learn to listen. Just who are all these noisy beings chatting away. Why, plants, darling. We might think of vegetables as—well, vegetables—as in inert and passive, when they would seem to be anything but.
Entangled Life (Thanks, Eli, for the recommendation!) Keeping on the plants are smart(er than us?) theme we have this wonderful dive into the humble fungus. To put it succinctly: fungus is everywhere and absolutely necessary for all life on Earth. More interestingly, though, it forms networks with itself and other forms of life and these networks can move, solve puzzles, and make choices. And of course, he looks at their history and usage in expanding human consciousness for longer than the entirety of recorded history.
And finally, we move from weirdly fascinating to weirdly uncomfortable: Stiff by Mary Roach. This one might be considered more anthropology than biology It’s an unflinching look at what happens to our meat sacks after we expire. You could opt for a quiet and sedate burial, a lovely sanitary cremation, or you could die(?) on the wild side: crash test cadaver, bomb testing, decomposition studies for forensic scientists, as well as the more well-known paths of organ donation and dissection labs. She covers it all, with humor and joy and compassion. Looking death square in the face in highly recommended for learning to not take things (ourselves especially) too seriously.
Entertaining, certainly, ff you’re of the geekly persuasion. But also awe inspiring. The world is just so damn weird and wonderful. And this is just the tip of the iceberg. Here you see a treasure trove of amazing people dedicating their lives to exploring just how weird it all is.
The weirdness is more than just weird. The weirdness is the key to unlocking mysteries and knowledge that has saved countless lives, made life better for billions, offer us untold comforts and safety our ancestor could only dream about. And scientists ahve done and still do all of this even at the worst of times. Inquisitions, programs, bombings, and yes, darlings, even fascists have failed to stop the humble scientists in their quests to understand and help.
So dive into some fun reads and maybe consider getting active.