Nice piece by science communicator Amanda Baker up on the Scientific American Blog .
Dropping food dye in milk isn’t just about watching something cool; it’s about standing there and letting something completely unexpected happen. The first astronauts walking on the Moon were taking the same adventure as toddlers bounding into the snow for the first time. When so much of the science education and communication narrative gets spent on (rightly) fighting back against pseudoscience, it is easy to get sucked into constructing walls, identifying a right kind of curiosity, an acceptable level of risk, or drawing lines between observant and impolite. Young thinkers deserve to have those options left wide open. I will keep reminding myself that one person’s gross, messy, or presumptuous might be another person’s inspiration or breakthrough. I will try to step back and leave room for as much wonder and as many questions as possible.
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