Replication of results

Annual memberships are the be-all-and-end-all of my parenting technique.  Instead of paying an extortionate fee to visit a tourist trap you can pay even more, but come back as many times are you want!  Living in a city like Vancouver means we're surrounded by such opportunities, which nicely fills up my weekly timetable.  "I'm at the aquarium, so it must be a Tuesday," Pete thinks, so he's also learning about the days of the week and Nietzsche's concept of eternal recurrence.

It's true that going to the aquarium 52 times this year has become a little repetitive, as several fish now greet us by name, but a new weapon in my arsenal has been provided by Science World, where we took out membership having been with the Hammonds.  It's so fabulous that we went there yesterday, and again today!  This is because Hannah's never been and also due to a brand new exhibition about light that was too crowded to go around.  We arrived as soon as they opened this morning, to avoid the masses and also because they only allow two theologians in per day, to try to keep the average scientific IQ a bit higher.

Pete is now a veteran, running around pressing all the buttons and pulling all the levers.  This pleased Hannah, as she thought it made it look like he immediately figured out how everything worked, rather than truth: that he's a product of parental neglect and Pavlovian conditioning.  Still, the new light stuff was great, and I got to see a purple laser, which doesn't happen every day.

As Pete descended into manic flitting, the classic sign that our time there was coming to an end, Hannah and I stared into the hypnotic depths of a cloud chamber, watching feathery trails left by something hitting something, or whatever.  "The trouble is," she mused, "I don't even understand what the explanation on the wall is trying to tell me about this."  If only Science World could aim its signs at our level rather than, you know, a one-year-old's.

Science says all colours are made up of green, blue and red light.  So how do you make yellow?  Exactly.

Tripping the light fantastic, with Halo by Alex Beim.  You control what it does, and it's amazing.

"Look into my eyes," says Hannah, "and repeat: oil is good...oil is good..."

A water lens, that does strange things to whatever you're looking at.

AaaARrRRGGghh!!!  This is why science should be banned.  How am I going to sleep tonight/ever again?

Suddenly, everything can be seen in three dimensions.

DNA is actually made from red liquorice laces, cocktail sticks and mini marshmallows, so that's something that I've learned today.

"Come on, Mummy, I'll show you how it works."

They say science needs independent thinkers who don't conform to the expectations of those around them or offer straightforward answers.  Well...