I enjoyed this story enough that I’m going to declare ‘stories’ to be honorary demos. Which McCrory will likely argue is true anyway.
For the first time, we can confidently state not only how the Moon formed, but why the two sides are so different!
— read The Two Faces of the Moon by Ethan Siegel on Medium.
Great story, Jonathan.
Scientists pursue the answers to mysteries.
Mysteries make wonderful stories.
Mysteries changed the way Robert Cialdini taught astronomy. He discovered that students wouldn’t leave without hearing the resolution of the mystery he had posed in his lecture.
Cialdini also came up with my favourite title for a research paper:
“What’s the best secret device for engaging student interest? The answer is in the title.”
http://stanford.io/1ylfrmE
Go on … click it … you know you want to.
See what you did there…
I clicked.
Classy.
My favourite research paper was one of Carl Sagan’s from 1993, which Nature slapped on their cover as “Is there life on Earth?”. Sadly, the paper itself has a less witty title. Gnats.
Also: you could argue that Cialdini’s paper is a precursor to all the woefully-manipulative “Fifteen great ways to drive page views” churnalism with which we’re currently plagued. Hmm.
True. Every interest management technique can be used or abused.
“Members of the audience should be respected; they must never be underestimated. … They can be manipulated, of course, but that’s something else. This they enjoy, this is why there are here; but they must not be handled clumsily or obviously.” Laurence Olivier