By Michael Carroll
Best-selling author of Why I'm Right About Everything

Introduction     Part 1     Part 2     Part 3     Part 4     Part 5

Science! It's all around us! Look over there? See that? That's science, that is! "Surely not," you say? "Nay! Not not," say I! "Science", you see, is just a word that is used to describe the natural world and all the stuff we know and don't know about it.

Some people will tell you that science is rubbish because scientists are always discovering new things that contradict old things. Well, yes, that does happen, but that's not a bad thing: it's a good thing! The very fact that scientists and can often do change their opinions proves the validity of science. Example: for a long time, we used to believe that people used to think that the world was flat. But now we know the truth: people didn't used to think that the world was flat. "They laughed at Christopher Columbus" as the old song goes. No, they didn't. But because of the song, people thought that they did. However, it would be foolish in the extreme to take this one example as proof that songs and science are incompatible. After all, another famous song tells us that "The wheels on the bus go round and round." And, very often, that is true: there are literally many carefully-conducted scientific studies that show, without a doubt, that bus wheels do go round and round, and in many cases they do so all day long.

So... If you're ready to begin commencing to take your first step into the great, exciting world of science, simply select "Part 1" above, and the read the page that comes up and, y'know, understand it and stuff.

A note from the author: Science for Beginners is a series of articles originally published in The Brentford Mercury many years ago. Some of the science within has since been superceded by newly-discovered knowledge, but that shouldn't put you off. They say that a little knowledge is a dangerous thing, so it'll come in handy if you ever need to protect yourself from muggers.