Current Geek 20: “What’s that, girl? Billy fell down the well due to centripetal force?”

Join Tom and I as we talk about Chad Orzel’s and his book, How to Teach Physics to Your Dog, an absolutely delightful book on many axes: first, its subject matter, quantum physics, is arguably the most mind-bending scientific subject we have; second, the device of the book — a quantum physicist, Orzel, explains quantum physics to Emmy, his cheeky German shepherd — is a hoot, and has the singular advantage of making the mind-bending a little less traumatic when the going gets tough (quantum physics has a certain irreducible complexity that precludes an easy understanding of its implications); finally, third, it is extremely well-written, combining a scientist’s rigor and accuracy with a natural raconteur’s storytelling skill.

And, we get a great reader submission from Blair S. about his Tribble obsession.