What is the essential scienceness that makes science scientific? Answering this question is not straightforward. Yet our answers - individually and as a society - impact how we value scientific work and even how scientists view their own research. In this class, we will discuss two famous perspectives - from Thomas Kuhn and Karl Popper - on the question, "what makes science science?". Finally, we will consider how our own answers to this question influence our views on what scientists should be doing, what they shouldn't be doing, and what they actually do.

Everyone knows what magnets are, but not everyone knows what antiferromagnets are. Come learn about antiferromagnets - why they exist, what makes them different from (ferro)magnets, and how the computers of the future might use them!

Look around you -- soil, wood, concrete, paint, glass, phones, people, light, clouds, stars -- an incredible variety of things. According to modern physics, however, deep down everything is made of the same basic building blocks. In this class, you will learn about these building blocks and explore how they are combined to make the world around us.

What is the essential scienceness that makes science scientific? Answering this question is not straightforward. Yet our answers - individually and as a society - impact how we value scientific work and even how scientists view their own research. In this class, we will discuss two famous perspectives - from Thomas Kuhn and Karl Popper - on the question, "what makes science sciencey?". Finally, we will consider how our own answers to this question influence our views on what scientists should be doing, what they shouldn't be doing, and what they actually do.