There’s a pretty good chance that you’ve heard the expression “blinded by science” somewhere. In fact, if you were around during the 80’s, you may have heard the song by Thomas Dolby entitled “She Blinded Me With Science” or the Foreigner song entitled “Blinded by Science.” You may have even heard the song or the phrase more recently in well-known shows like Breaking Bad or the Crazy Ones. However, even if you are familiar with the expression, have you ever stopped to figure out what it means? Well, if you haven’t, the expression “blinded by science” refers to the act of using a series of complicated concepts (or, at least, concepts that appear to be complicated) to intentionally confuse someone. In other words, if you are “blinding someone with science,” you are using your scientific knowledge (or your skill at making stuff up) to leave someone completely baffled.
Now, if you would like to have the scientific knowledge to blind someone with science or you enjoy when other people blind you with science, there are a couple of events this weekend that you should definitely check out. First, the MIT Museum, in collaboration with a number of local businesses, educational institutions, and community organizations, is hosting the Cambridge Science Festival. This festival, which began last weekend and runs until this Sunday (April 27, 2014), will allow you and your family to attend a series of activities, performances, and workshops to learn about holograms, math, optics, space, and a whole lot more. For more information on the festival and/or to register for a specific event, please visit the MIT Museum website or the Cambridge Science Festival website.
Secondly, if you can’t make it into the city until later and/or you’ve always wanted to learn more about the stars, the Museum of Science has the program for you. This is because the Museum of Science offers a special program on Friday nights from the beginning of March to Thanksgiving called Astronomy After Hours. This program, which runs from 8:30 to 10:00 PM every Friday (weather permitting), will allow you and your family to see stars, planets, and all of the other wonders of space through the equipment at the Gilliland Observatory. Best of all, the program is open to the public and is completely free. For more information on the Astronomy After Hours program, please visit the Museum of Science website or call the Astronomy After Hours hotline at 617-589-0267.
Photo credit: jurvetson / Foter / Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0)