Science: Rules of Life and Lab We need laws to keep the peace, maintain civility, and get by in normal society. Here are a few "laws" that scientists use, and a few fun ones that economists use. It''s not just a television show: The Big Bang theory says the universe began with one great big, very large, colossal explosion. Edward Hubble (1889-1953) and Albert Einstein (1879-1955), among other big-name scientists, believed this to be so. If you think there must be life on other planets, then you''re using Fermi''s Paradox and The Drake Equation work hand-in-hand. That''s the former asks why we haven''t been visited by extraterrestrial life yet and the latter attempts to estimate the actual existence of alien communities that could come for a weekend or two. These scientific "laws" came from physicist Enrico Fermi (1901-1954), who supposedly wondered aloud where the little green men were, if they did, indeed, exist; and from Dr. Frank Drake (1930-1922), who devised a mathematical way to estimate how overrun we could become, should aliens visit.

Kepler''s Laws of Planetary Motion gives you a three-in-one to describe the way the planets orbit the sun. Created by Johannes Kepler (1571-1630), it states that planets orbit the sun in an elliptical fashion with the sun as their centerpiece, that a line between a planet and the sun is equal over an equal amount of time, and that a planet''s orbital period and its distance from the sun are related. Fun Fact! A Helmholtz resonator, so-named after Hermann von Helmholtz (1821-1894), a German physicist, is an instrument that measures musical tones. You can make your own simple Helmholtz resonator by blowing gently across the top of a bottle; the noise that occurs when the air inside the bottle resonates according to the size of the mouth of the bottle, the speed of your blow, and how much air is left inside the bottle. Isaac Newton (1643-1747) gave us his Law of Motion that states an object at rest remains in rest, but when the object is set in motion, it will keep moving unless acted upon by an outside force. The second part of that Law states that the timeframe for the object to stop moving is equal to the magnitude and force of what stops it. Oh, and for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. That''s the third part of the Law of Motion.

Do you start to get hungry when you see a clock approaching noon? Congratulations, you''re a victim of conditional learning. The most famous example of this is Pavlov''s dog , who was taught to associate the sound of a dinner bell with its actual meal. Pretty soon, the dog salivated over the sound, and not the scent of dinner, an example of classic conditioning. Occam''s Razor , in a few words, states that the simpler the answer or experiment, the better. It''s also known as the principle of parsimony. "If you hear hoof beats, look for horses, not zebras" is another, very classic, way of understanding this "law" in action. Eureka! That''s supposedly what Archimedes (287-212 B.C.

E.) shouted as he understood his buoyancy principle that explains how an object that is submerged or partly submerged in water will replace water of an equal weight. Here''s one that seems especially apt these days: the Dunning Kruger Effect happens when a person''s deficiency in knowledge of a certain subject causes them to severely overestimate their competence in that subject. We can thank psychologists David Dunning and Justin Kruger for this description. The Streisand effect explains the phenomena in which the attempt to hide, conceal, minimize the attention to, or otherwise ignore something backfires spectacularly, causing attention to be actually drawn to the item in question. This "law" was so named because actress Barbra Streisand is said to have tried to conceal an architectural feature of her home in 2003, thereby calling more attention to it. Fun Fact! Willie Keith Kellogg (1860-1951) had a theory that good health could be created by eating only healthy foods, heavy on vegetables. In his younger days, Will worked as a bookkeeper for his older brother, John, who ran the Battle Creek Sanitarium, while Will developed his theory and created a way to bake the Sanitarium''s breakfast cereal grains into flakes.

In 1906, Will left his brother''s business and went into the cereal business by himself. You can still see his name at breakfast every morning, right next to your bowl. Botany: Smallest to Biggest Here''s a fact for you: we cannot live without plants on this planet. From the largest to the smallest to the most popular, here are a few facts about the green things in our world. The largest trees in the world are the giant sequoias, which are native to California and the western part of North America. It''s pretty common for a sequoia to grow to a height approaching 300 feet tall. Measuring over three feet in diameter and weighing more than 10 pounds, the Rafflesia arnoldii is the world''s biggest flower. You don''t want to give one to your sweetie, though, and you definitely don''t want to try to grow it in your garden: this gigantic flowering plant is also called the corpse plant because the flower smells like something died in it.

The most common kind of grass you''ll find in your lawn will likely depend on where you live: some varieties do better in warmer climates, some do better in cooler or wetter or drier places. According to Scotts.com, there are about a dozen different grasses used on lawns in the U.S., and most lawns contain a mixture of two or more of them. For the record, American cemeteries also seem to rely on a variety of grasses for cover. So you say you love to jump in a pile of leaves after your annual fall raking? Check this out: the Raphia regalis , a type of palm tree that grows in some places in Africa sports individual leaves that may grow to more than 80 feet long and up to 10 feet wide. Yeah, rake that.

The world''s smallest tree is the Dwarf willow, which tops out at a little over two inches in height when fully mature. If you''ve missed it, you''re not alone. The tiniest flower in the world is the Watermeal, which measures roughly the size of the head of a straight pin. It''s thought that if you scooped them up from their watery home, you''d need around 5,000 of them to fill a thimble. While enormous pumpkins can be cultivated and raised with proper care, tropical yams from the genus Dioscorea will regularly grow to be 60 pounds or more, although they''re usually harvested long before they reach that measurement. Ancient Sumerians and Babylonians kept plants in their homes for ornamental purposes some 2,500 years ago. Zones for planting are helpful guides to assist in ensuring that the plants you want to grow are hardy enough to withstand climate extremes in your area. Each zone differs by 10 degrees from the zone above or below it, so look carefully before you pick your seed or sapling.

America''s oldest tree is thought to have been Prometheus, a Great Basin bristlecone pine that lived in Wheeler Peak, Nevada. Before it was cut down in 1964, Prometheus was believed to be nearly 5,000 years old. The oldest living individual (not a colony) tree in America today is Methuselah, also a bristlecone pine tree, that is thought to be more than 4,800 years old. The oldest potted plant is believed to be an Eastern Cape giant cycad that lives in the Kew Gardens in the U.K. Brought back from South Africa in 1775 by botanist Francis Masson (1741-1805), the plant has now achieved a height of some twelve feet and weighs a little over a ton. Orchids are among the most expensive plants in the world, with prices reaching six figures for some of the rarest kinds. Rare roses, ancient bonsai trees, and the Queen of the Night succulent from Sri Lanka will also set you back a few weeks'' pay.