Come On In Folks

Welcome to Science Figures, or "Sci Fig"--the educational blog on science and scientists. What you are going to see here is clear, concise, captivating educational material, interspersed with some commentary on science and education.

Who am I, you might ask. My name is Andrew. I just earned a bachelor's degree in biology from George Washington University, I live in Michigan, and I am happy to answer emails if I can. Now, I don't really like the word "blog" or being called a "blogger", but until someone comes up with a better term, we're stuck with here calling this a blog. I am passionate about sharing knowledge, and helping people appreciate wonder in our World.

Here's Sci Fig's raison d'etre in a nutshell:

• Clear, organized, interesting, easily-understandable, free education material is surprisingly difficult to find on the internet.

Wikipedia is wunderbar, but have you ever tried to read their entry on general relativity? For those of us who are non-physicists (a.k.a. normal people), most will experience a sensation similar to hypnosis, compulsively check Facebook to snap out of it, and learn essentially nothing (except maybe that Ben lost his phone again...). The problem with the likes of Wikipedia is that information and education are not the same thing. Encyclopedias contain knowledge, but unless you're A.J. Jacobs, they are not strong learning materials.

At the same time, textbooks are verbose, boring and...holy cow! have you seen the price-tag on those things lately!?

So how can you trust me and my work?

1. I am accountable. I will happily accept (reasonable) criticism in comments or emails. If something is demonstrably wrong, I will correct it.
2. To be clear: My information is a combination of what I know off-hand, combined with good ol' fashioned Google books. I understand that some material may be "boiled down", and ignore some complicating detail. That's artistic license. All diagrams are my own unless otherwise stated.
3. Sci Fig is not an ideological blog. It may not be 100 percent politics-free, but I'd like it to be as close as possible. This is for everyone to appreciate.

I will demonstrate that science can be readable and relevant, and people of all ages can appreciate it.