Science Niblets

Life is not only about the decisions we make, but also about, the order in which we make them. From a very young age, we start making decisions about our preferences, about what we want, and later, about what we need.

Our intuition and our ability to discern what is going on around us is a key component of being human. We really need to be able to calculate the chances of events in our given environment. This is a fundamental skill that has prevented us from being eaten by lions (at least most of us!) and in turn effectively propagate our species over time. So in a sense, one of the integral ingredients of humanity is being adept at constantly analyzing questions related to probability.

If you ever wonder why some trucks are spreading big rocks of salt on the streets during winter and not on food, I have to tell you that salt has more abilities than making food yummy. Salt can make ice melt. You can try it yourself if you take some salt from the kitchen and put it on some ice cubes. Soon you will see that it melts even if you keep it inside the freezer! But do you know how it works?

Now, in the cold season, people wearing glasses know this problem very well: If you come into a nice warm building or a bus from outside, you can't see a thing because your glasses are fogged up. The same thing happens with car windows or the windows from your house when it's cold outside. Why?