12 Tips to Learn How to Be Curious

Wikipedia defines curiosity as:

“any natural inquisitive behavior, evident by observation in many animal species, and is the emotional aspect of living beings that engenders exploration, investigation, and learning.”

Some people are born curious like Leonardo da Vinci. For others, curiosity just “kicked in” over time. Like anything else, curiosity can be learned. It’s never too late to learn how be curious. Finding your passion in work gets easier and the journey more interesting if you develop curiosity. So how can you learn it?

... so? how can you become curious? ... easy:

1. Don’t accept Spin: often what we’re exposed to is only the tip of the iceberg. Scratch the surface by digging a little deeper. Look at it from another perspective, then investigate any or all new information that you find.

2. Ask Questions: just like a little kid, think about “how?” or “why.” Asking more questions is like turning over more rocks. You never know what you’ll find.

3. Ask ‘What if…’: Think in the three possible scenarios: default to worst, most likely, and best-case scenario. Or think in terms of Sci-Fi like “what if, in a parallel universe” or “what if, in another life time, it had turned out like this?” Try the “what if…” approach.

4. ‘Turn Questions into Quests’: The first thing I could do when I get curious about something is go to Amazon.com or Google.com and do a search. There is always an answer to a question. Look for it!

5. Dig deeper than the RSS feed: breadth is nice, but depth is better. Taking a deep dive into the object of your curiosity is more satisfying than only looking at the high-level or macro view. Think verticals, not horizontals, unless your 360 view has you motivated to research breadth and depth.

6. Use available Tools: Amazon.com is a great resource for finding the books for your research. If you’re brainstorming, then mindmapping is always effective. Use note cards or all the usual ways you collect information so you can easily organize your thoughts later.

7. Put disconnected ideas together: over time, you learn how to see disparate things, realizing that they may be related.

8. Play: Find a way of incorporating what you like to do for play?

9. Get Proactive: it’s easy to accept things as they are, but we have take initiative if we want to be curious. When we’re learning how to be curious, you’re actually going out of your way to do it so it becomes a habit.

10. Network: talk or e-mail other who you respect on the thing you’re curious about.

11. Find a ‘Curiosity Buddy’: it’s more fun when we get curious with a buddy. It will make for lively discussions and more field trips to the bookstore!

12. Slow Down: Just sit. Reflect. Once you find great information, then sit down. Do nothing. Let the thoughts come to you, and then reflect on it.

article found here

Science's 10 Most Beautiful Physics Experiments

1. Double-slit electron diffraction

The French physicist Louis de Broglie proposed in 1924 that electrons and other discrete bits of matter, which until then had been conceived only as material particles, also have wave properties such as wavelength and frequency. read more

2. Galileo's experiment on falling objects

In the late 1500's, everyone knew that heavy objects fall faster than lighter ones. After all, Aristotle had said so. That an ancient Greek scholar still held such sway was a sign of how far science had declined during the dark ages. read more

3. Millikan's oil-drop experiment

Oil-drop experiment was the first direct and compelling measurement of the electric charge of a single electron. It was performed originally in 1909 by the American physicist Robert A. Millikan. read more

4. Newton's decomposition of sunlight with a prism

Isaac Newton was born the year Galileo died. He graduated from Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1665, then holed up at home for a couple of years waiting out the plague. He had no trouble keeping himself occupied. read more

5. Young's light-interference experiment

Newton wasn't always right. Through various arguments, he had moved the scientific mainstream toward the conviction that light consists exclusively of particles rather than waves. In 1803, Thomas Young, an English physician and physicist, put the idea to a test. read more

6. Cavendish's torsion-bar experiment

The experiment was performed in 1797–98 by the English scientist Henry Cavendish. read more

7. Eratosthenes' measurement of the Earth's circumference

At Syene (now Aswan), some 800 km (500 miles) southeast of Alexandria in Egypt, the Sun's rays fall vertically at noon at the summer solstice. Eratosthenes, who was born in c. 276 BC, noted that at Alexandria, at the same date and time, sunlight fell at an angle of about 7° from the vertical. read more

8. Galileo's experiments with rolling balls down inclined planes

Galileo continued to refine his ideas about objects in motion. He took a board 12 cubits long and half a cubit wide (about 20 feet by 10 inches) and cut a groove, as straight and smooth as possible, down the center. read more

9. Rutherford's discovery of the nucleus

When Ernest Rutherford was experimenting with radioactivity at the University of Manchester in 1911, atoms were generally believed to consist of large mushy blobs of positive electrical charge with electrons embedded inside — the "plum pudding" model. read more

10. Foucault's pendulum

Last year when scientists mounted a pendulum above the South Pole and watched it swing, they were replicating a celebrated demonstration performed in Paris in 1851. read more

Just for your curiosity ... something you may not have read till now :)

Have fun, Ella

25 Facts that you may not know

1. Apples, not caffeine, are more efficient at waking you up in the morning.
2. Alfred Hitchcock didn't have a belly button.
3. A pack-a-day smoker will lose approximately 2 teeth every 10 years.
4. People do not get sick from cold weather; it's from being indoors a lot more.
5. When you sneeze, all bodily functions stop, even your heart!
6. Only 7 per cent of the population are lefties.
7. Forty people are sent to the hospital for dog bites every minute.
8. Babies are born without kneecaps. They don't appear until they are 2-6 years old.
9. The average person over 50 will have spent 5 years waiting in lines.
10. The toothbrush was invented in 1498.
11. The average housefly lives for one month.
12. 40,000 Americans are injured by toilets each year.
13. A coat hanger is 44 inches long when straightened.
14. The average computer user blinks 7 times a minute.
15. Your feet are bigger in the afternoon than any other time of day.
16. Most of us have eaten a spider in our sleep.
17. The REAL reason ostriches stick their head in the sand is to search for water.
18. The only two animals that can see behind themselves without turning their heads are the rabbit and the parrot.
19.John Travolta turned down the starring roles in "An Officer and a Gentleman" and "Tootsie."
20. Michael Jackson owns the rights to the South Carolina State anthem.
21. In most television commercials advertising milk, a mixture of white paint and a little thinner is used in place of the milk.
22. Prince Charles and Prince William NEVER travel on the same Airplane, just in case there is a crash.
23. The first Harley Davidson motorcycle built in 1903 used a tomato can for a carburetor.
24. Most hospitals make money by selling the umbilical cords cut from women who give birth. They are used in vein transplant surgery.
25. Humphrey Bogart was related to Princess Diana. They were 7th cousins.

Interesting Facts

Here are some interesting, but true facts, that you may or may not have known.

1. The Statue of Liberty's index finger is eight feet long.
2. Rain has never been recorded in some parts of the Atacama Desert in Chile.
3. A 75 year old person will have slept about 23 years.
4. Boeing 747's wing span is longer than the Wright brother's first flight. The Wright brother's invented the airplane.
5. There are as many chickens on earth as there are humans.
6. One type of hummingbird weighs less than a penny.
7. The word "set" has the most number of definitions in the English language; 192 Slugs have four noses.
8. Sharks can live up to 100 years.
9. Mosquitoes are more attracted to the color blue than any other color.
10. Kangaroos can't walk backwards.
11. About 75 acres of pizza are eaten in in the U.S. everyday.
12. The largest recorded snowflake was 15 Inch wide and 8 Inch thick. It fell in Montana in 1887.
13. The tip of a bullwhip moves so fast that the sound it makes is actually a tiny sonic boom.
14. Former president Bill Clinton only sent 2 emails in his entire 8 year presidency.
15. Koalas and humans are the only animals that have finger prints.
16. There are 200,000,000 insects for every one human.
17. It takes more calories to eat a piece of celery than the celery had in it to begin with.
18. The world's largest Montessori school is in India, with 26,312 students in 2002.
19. Octopus have three hearts.
20. If you ate too many carrots, you would turn orange.
21. The average person spends two weeks waiting for a traffic light to change.
22. 1 in 2,000,000,000 people will live to be 116 or old.
23. The body has 2-3 million sweat glands.
24. Sperm whales have the biggest brains; 20 lbs.
25. Tiger shark embryos fight each other in their mother's womb. The survivor is born.
26. Most cats are left pawed.
27. 250 people have fallen off the Leaning Tower of Pisa.
28. A Blue whale's tongue weighs more than an elephant.
29. You use 14 muscles to smile and 43 to frown. Keep Smiling!
30. Bamboo can grow up to 3 ft in 24 hours.
31. An eyeball weighs about 1 ounce.

Human Body in 24 Hours

In 24 hours, An average human:

1. HEART beats 1,03,689 times.
2. LUNGS respire 23,045 times.
3. BLOOD flows 16,80,000 miles.
4. NAILS grow 0.00007 inches.
5. HAIR grows 0.01715 inches.
6. Take 2.9 pounds WATER (including all liquids).
7. Take 3.25 pounds FOOD.
8. Breathe 438 cubic feet AIR.
9. Lose 85.60, BODY TEMPERATURE.
10. Produce 1.43 pints SWEAT.
11. Speak 4,800 WORDS.
12. During SLEEP move 25.4 times.