I'm No Science Geek

I admit I go to a lot of nerdy events, but that's what people like me do in between eating out and going to art shows and hearing live music.

But when I do show my inner geek, it's never in the scientific arena, for a good reason: just not interesting enough for me.

Which made today's lecture at the Science Museum of Virginia ideal for me.

The noon lecture, Earth, Wind and Fire: Casting Civil War Artillery, was about iron-making and the prolific weapon industry that came out of the south's largest ironworks, Tredegar, during the war.

But rather than a scientific lecture, the speaker was Andrew Talkov of the VA Historical Society and the exhibit coordinator for Virginia's Civil War Sesquicentennial (just around the corner in 2011, kids).

Any true science types in the audience were undoubtedly mortified when he started explaining the components of iron making, earth, air, fire and water, and how they needed to combine to produce wrought iron and cast iron.

After a labored explanation and arrow-filled diagram, he said to the audience, "And that's how it was done. Did you get that? Cause I don't think I really do."

Of course I didn't get it.

That's why it was my kind of scientific lecture: lots of historical illustrations, interesting photos of artifacts and obscure info.

And no scientific knowledge required.