The Science SPLATS

My work life involves a lot of researching and writing history, mainly about how we did things, before we had a machine to do that. My hobbies include reading science fiction, and two works in particular colour my thinking. They are A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller, and A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court by Mark Twain.

Miller wrote of a future Dark Age in the USA, and how knowledge of a sort is kept alive, by illuminating printed circuit designs (!). Twain imagines a can-do Yankee engineer who knows enough to make a revolver and ammunition for it. My aim is to try to establish something that can-do thinkers might be able to use to give a lift to a future Renaissance thinker, because my octogenarian mind revolves more and more on the doom that I see besetting our descendants. Simple ideas, like "boil the water" may be all it takes. Or, try this:

An early rule known to many builders and engineers: to make a perfect right angle, draw a triangle with sides of 3, 4 and 5 units, or 5, 12 and 13 units.

My Science SPLATs were my attempt to idiot-proof our future, to give Miller's monks some hints like that. The SPLATS got their name because they were conceived originally as 'splats', short and pithy statements that could be written on brightly coloured cardboard and stuck on walls, reminding students of what a segment of study is all about.

Later, I invented an acronym for the project: "Science Principles, Laws, Assumptions, Theories and Something" (I still have to get the best final word, but all the best jargon acronyms are created this way). It matters little. My aim was to come up with neat statements, in 160 characters or less, outlining the big ideas of science, the key assumptions that are often left out when science is being transmitted. It is our failure to spell out the big ideas that causes people to think science is counter-intuitive.

There were soon around 3000 of them, rather too much for the cardboard budget of most schools, and they have a few more useful functions to perform. They provide a framework for teachers, or for students who wish to move on, independently, or for parents trying to help their children. They also offer trigger points for further searches, which is why I have been careful to list full names and technical terms, to aid tailored searching.

The SPLATs are not intended as crib sheets, lists of key facts to be learned, because in most cases, they give you the bare bones, starting points, things to argue about. They are also, as I have been noticing near the end, incomplete. One day, I plan to go through the shorter files to see what else I can add. 

They were placed (for free) on the web, as a resource, but my treacherous ISP trashed the lot, without warning. Luckily, I had copies, and in between other tasks, I am now shoving them back online, and this is the portal.

There is now limited but sufficient navigation built in. If you like my ideas, use them  if you share my ideals, and you can see some gaps, I am happy to have suggestions for improvements. 

Here are the pointers: all are now complete.

The SPLATS about science

Chemistry SPLATS

Physics SPLATS

Biology SPLATS 

Earth Science SPLATS

Extraterrestrial SPLATS

Technology SPLATS