Once nudged to consider the cosmos, even jaded kids can be gobsmacked. The things my students are most interested in are things that make them feel small,” says Abby Morton, a high school astronomy teacher in a working-class Boston suburb. They love anything that gives them context.”
During class, Morton hands out palmsized diagrams of the solar system. If the solar system were that big, she asks her students, how big would the Milky Way be?
“Bigger than the football field!” they venture, or even, Bigger than Massachusetts!” In fact, she tells them, the Milky Way would be the size of the United States. That mic-drop sense of grandeur continues to inspire even Gen Z.
“No matter where you come from or who your ancestors were, they were looking at the stars,” Penn State astronomer Michael Siegel tells his students at the start of the semester. Siegel studies supernovae—“the biggest explosions in the universe.” While stars are exploding daily, they do that close enough to be seen by the naked eye only once every 200 years.
This story is from the December 2022 edition of Reason magazine.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Sign In
This story is from the December 2022 edition of Reason magazine.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
50 Years of D&D: You Can't Copyright Fun
This year marks the 50th anniversary of the original edition of Dungeons & Dragons (D&D), the granddaddy of tabletop role-playing games and one of the urtexts of nerd culture.
The Alzheimer's Test You're Not Allowed To Have
MILLIONS FACE THE shadow of Alzheimer’s, a disease that steals memories and devastates lives.
An Early Test for Alzheimer's
SHOULD YOU BE allowed to take a blood test that could tell you if you’re already at risk of Alzheimer’s disease? Last year, Quest Diagnostics began offering a consumer-initiated blood test for $399 (not covered by insurance) that detects the buildup of proteins associated with the development of Alzheimer’s in customers’ plasma.
Caging Lab-Grown Meat
LAB-GROWN MEAT IS a scientific marvel. We’ve managed, through pure human ingenuity, to create something that looks like meat, cooks like meat, tastes pretty much like meat, and comes from animal cells—yet doesn’t require the slaughter of a single living animal.
The 'Migrant Crime' Wave, Debunked
“THE UNITED STATES is being overrun by the Biden migrant crime,” said former President Donald Trump during a visit to the U.S.-Mexico border in February. “It’s a new form of vicious violation to our country.”
Don't Co-Parent With Congress
I’M ALWAYS PUZZLED when I hear other parents say they’re worried about the effects social media might be having on their children.
Is Chinese Garlic a Threat to National Security?
IS A STAPLE ingredient in your kitchen secretly undermining American sovereignty? Sen. Rick Scott (R–Fla.) seems to believe so.
Launch Approved? Not So Fast, Says Sluggish FAA
MOST AMERICANS ARE eager to see NASA astronauts return to the moon and push humanity’s boundaries with future exploration of Mars.
SpaceX Edges Closer to the Moon
ARTEMIS II IS a crewed moon flyby mission, the first in a series of missions meant to get American astronauts back to the moon and eventually to Mars.
Blaming Tech for Teen Troubles
Jonathan Haidt’s clever, insufficient case against smartphones