Weird Science

Main

Polish ver­sion is here
The fai­rest thing we can expe­rience is the myste­rious. It is the fun­da­men­tal emo­tion which stands at the cra­dle of true art and science. He who knows it not and can no lon­ger won­der, no lon­ger feel ama­ze­ment, is as good as dead, a snuf­fed-out can­dle.

Albert Ein­stein

Wel­come!

Do you not agree with Ein­stein? In my opi­nion, his words express the truth about our world: it is won­der­ful, and we sho­uld strive to under­stand it as much as pos­si­ble. Our rea­lity is sha­ped by rules and laws, know­ledge of which allows us to com­pre­hend it. This is the pur­pose of science.

Ilustracja

Unfor­tu­na­tely, recent events that have occur­red, namely the unju­sti­fied aggres­sion of Rus­sia aga­inst Ukra­ine, com­pel us to reflect on the state of the sur­ro­un­ding rea­lity. I, as the author of the 'Weird­Science' pro­ject, with a scien­ti­fic appro­ach to the world in mind, strive to main­tain ide­o­lo­gi­cal neu­tra­lity in my work. Howe­ver, in the face of the bru­ta­lity of the Rus­sian autho­ri­ties and the sava­gery of their mili­tary - evi­den­tly also pre­me­di­ta­te­dly tar­ge­ting civi­lians - I have deci­ded to make an excep­tion to this rule. The world of science con­demns the actions of the Rus­sians and calls for dia­lo­gue. The link below leads to an open let­ter addres­sed to the Rus­sians, signed by, among others, Nobel lau­re­a­tes:

https://www.nlcam­pa­i­gns.org/ukra­ine.html

As far as I know, a  simi­lar let­ter to their own autho­ri­ties has also been issued by some Rus­sian scien­ti­sts. The­re­fore, there is hope that Rus­sian citi­zens who are not entan­gled in poli­tics do not uncon­di­tio­nally sup­port the attack on Ukra­ine and can, with their actions, help pre­vent blo­od­shed on both sides.

From the sta­ti­stics of this web­site, I know that it is being read in Rus­sia as well, both in its ori­gi­nal ver­sion and with the use of auto­ma­tic tran­s­la­tion. Per­haps this mes­sage will also reach them.

We, citi­zens of Poland, will do eve­ry­thing we can to help our nei­gh­bors in need and be a sup­port for them in these dif­fi­cult times!

Natu­ral scien­ces are often per­ce­i­ved as boring and dif­fi­cult for the com­mon per­son to under­stand. As in many areas of life, it also depends on our own point of view. Nowa­days, the com­ple­xity and spe­cia­li­za­tion growth make the enti­rety of know­ledge in the field of natu­ral scien­ces impos­si­ble for one per­son to com­pre­hend. Huma­nism from the times of Leo­nardo da Vinci - when one per­son could be a spe­cia­list in all areas of know­ledge - has unfor­tu­na­tely pas­sed fore­ver.

Howe­ver, it is not as dire as it may seem - we can con­duct many inte­re­sting expe­ri­ments and rese­arch on our own. Get­ting to know the laws and rules under­ly­ing our rea­lity brings great satis­fac­tion… Plus, it is a great way to learn some­thing new.

My aim in cre­a­ting this web­site is to popu­la­rize science and draw atten­tion to the fact that it does not con­sist solely of long, incom­pre­hen­si­ble mathe­ma­ti­cal for­mu­las and abs­tract the­o­ries. In fact, a true scien­tist must main­tain a balance between the­o­re­ti­cal and empi­ri­cal appro­a­ches. The expe­ri­ment and mathe­ma­ti­cal model must always com­ple­ment each other. I hope, my Dear Rea­der, that you will pause here for a moment or two and try to apply the infor­ma­tion you gain in prac­tice.

I would like to express my gra­ti­tude to my family and friends for all their sup­port and under­stan­ding. Their help gives me a lot of energy. I am espe­cially gra­te­ful to my bro­ther - without his IT sup­port, this site might not have been cre­a­ted at all.

As you know, any­thing can be used for good or bad pur­po­ses. The pre­sen­ted expe­ri­ments, their descrip­tions, and illu­stra­tive mate­rials have been cre­a­ted for edu­ca­tio­nal pur­po­ses. They sho­uld be vie­wed as an inte­re­sting way to expand your know­ledge. Howe­ver, it must always be remem­be­red that any expe­ri­ment car­ried out care­les­sly, inat­ten­ti­vely, or erro­ne­o­u­sly may endan­ger life or health. I cau­tion you aga­inst attemp­ting expe­ri­ments that, despite my sin­cere inten­tions, may be incom­pre­hen­si­ble to the rea­der for wha­te­ver rea­son. Remem­ber: you only have one life! In case of any doubts, it is best to con­tact me with a que­stion (con­tact here).

Any know­ledge deri­ved from my artic­les must not be used for pur­po­ses con­trary to appli­ca­ble law!

Most of the expe­ri­ments pre­sen­ted on this page do not requ­ire the use of spe­cia­li­zed tools and dif­fi­cult-to-obtain mate­rials. I have per­so­nally con­duc­ted and veri­fied all of them. If there is any dan­ger, it is cle­arly descri­bed every time it may occur.

I recom­mend rea­ding my publi­ca­tions in scien­ti­fic and popu­lar science jour­nals.

You may find it use­ful to fami­lia­rize your­self with the copy­ri­ght laws for all mate­rials on this site. They are ava­i­la­ble here.

Feel free to expe­ri­ment :)!

Marek Ples

Aa