Storm in a Teacup

The basic principles alone often won't provide specific answers, but they'll provide the context needed to ask the right questions. And if we're used to working things out... we won't feel hopeless when the answer isn't obvious...

This book is about linking the little things we see every day with the big world we live in.

As far as we know, the physical laws we observe... on Earth apply everywhere... You can test them for yourself.

You don't have to be a qualified scientist to experiment with the world. Knowing some basic principles will set you on the right track... [I]t doesn't even have to be an organized process...

We are responsible for our civilization. We vote... choose what to buy and how to live... collectively [as] part of the human journey.

Science is not about 'them', it's about 'us'... we can all go on this adventure in our own way.

Critical thinking is essential... especially with advertisers and politicians all telling us... they know best.

No one can understand every... detail of our complex world, but the basic principles are fantastically valuable tools...

This is why I love physics. Everything you learn will come in useful somewhere else, and it's all one big adventure...

In the past, information was treasured... These days we live on the shore of an ocean of knowledge... with regular s that threaten out sanity.

This is what separates science from other disciplines—a scientific hypothesis must make specific testable predictions. ...[Y]ou have to look hard for consequences that you can check for, and especially... that you can prove wrong.

Science is always trying to prove itself wrong, because that's the quickest route to finding what's actually going on.

Put the egg down on a smooth, hard surface and set it spinning. ...[W]hen you stopped the raw egg, you only stopped the shell. The liquid never stopped swirling... so... the shell started rotating again... dragged around by its insides. ...It is a principle of physics that objects continue the same... movement unless you push or pull on them. ...[C]onservation of angular momentum.

A toaster can teach you some of the most fundamental laws of physics...

If you pour milk into your tea and give it a quick stir... liquids mix in beautiful swirling patterns... not... merging instantaneously. ...If you look down on Earth from space, you... often see... similar swirls in the clouds... where warm... and cold air waltz around... instead of mixing directly. In Britain... they form at the boundary between cold polar air... and warm tropical air... We know these swirls as depressions or s...

Learning the science of the everyday is a direct route to the... knowledge... every citizen needs...

Physics is awesome... because the same patterns are universal... in the kitchen and in the furthest reaches of the universe.

Look at... cyclists; their high visibility jackets... oddly bright... as though they're glowing... It's... the same trick the scorpions are playing...

[S]corpions... have pigments in their that take in light that we can't see and give back visible light... . The blue-green glow is thought to be an adaptation to help... at dusk. ...[I]t can detect its own glow and so... needs to do... better... hiding. It's an effective... signalling system...

The ... has produced many... spectacular images... But when you're floating... in space... how do you hold your position... How do you know... which way you're facing? Hubble has six s, each... a wheel spinning... Conservation of angular momentum means that those wheels will [tend to] keep spinning... and the spin axis will stay pointed in... the same direction... The gyroscopes give Hubble a reference direction...

The physical principle used to orient one of the most advanced technologies... demonstrated with an egg in your kitchen.

[S]imilarity in patterns is... a clue that hints at something... fundamental. ...[A] systematic basis for all such formations... This process of discovery is science: the continual refinement and testing of our understanding, alongside the digging that reveals even more...

We live on the edge, perched on the boundary between planet Earth and the rest of the Universe. ...Every human civilization has seen the stars, but no one has touched them. Our home on Earth is the opposite: messy... full of things... we touch and tweak... The physical world is full of startling variety... But this diversity isn't random. Our world is full of patterns.

[A] nugget of physics... isn't just an interesting fact: it's a tool... useful anywhere...

[T]onic water glow[s] under ultraviolet... because the ... is fluorescent. ... ink is also acting as an ultraviolet detector...