JIM HENDRICKS: Making science cool again

Every now and then, something comes along to make science cool, even on a blistering hot day.

The Great American Eclipse did that Monday, though in our area it was probably more along the lines of the Perhaps Above Average American Eclipse.

I based this on some phone calls I got after the solar show was over.

“That was some eclipse, huh?” one guy said.

“It was OK,” I replied.

“Really?” he said. “I didn’t notice anything. Didn’t look dark to me.”

I’ll admit that, in our area at least, it didn’t seem to be dramatic enough to have inspired ancient people to shoot flaming arrows into the sky to attempt to reignite the sun or push someone into a volcano to distract an evil spirit that was munching away at it (evil spirits, apparently, will skip a hearty meal for a good volcano sacrifice).

Part of the problem was probably expectations. We heard about this approaching “big eclipse show” for even longer than the hype that preceded the finale episode of “Seinfeld.” (Frankly, of the two, the eclipse was better. A lot better.)

You think that 90 percent of sun coverage is going to be a whole lot darker than it is. Plus, there were a good many clouds blocking sunlight already, so the effect wasn’t as “Ta-dah!” — as my 2-year-old grandgirl, Elliott, likes to say — as it could have been.

Still, looking out the window, it did get significantly darker. While I was busy for most of the event updating eclipse photos on the Herald website, I did get out on the sidewalk long enough to get a glimpse through my stylish eclipse-safe glasses that I paid the handsome price of $1.99 for three weeks ago.

If you didn’t get a pair of these glasses, the lenses are remarkably dark. All you can see through them, looking directly at the sun, is a small circle. Which is why it surprised me — though in this litigious world nothing ever should — that among the disclaimers written on the arms of the glasses is the warning: “When using this product do not move around, drive a motor vehicle or operate machinery.”

That ranks up there with warning on airplane doors not to open them while the plane is in flight. Apparently someone at some time wanted to get a breath of fresh air 20,000 feet or so up, ruining the opportunity for such an experience for the rest of us.

With these solar eclipse safety glasses, if you try to walk around or do anything else that requires movement, your best chance at navigation is to whistle and listen for the echo.

Especially given all the unpleasantness that has been common in this summer of America’s discontent, however, the eclipse, regardless of whether it exactly lived up to the hype, was a nice break from the monotony of the national malaise.

In fact, the only real downside was there was no appropriate soundtrack. When you think about it, there is only one real “eclipse” song out there, the one by Bonnie Tyler, “Total Eclipse of the Heart,” which she sang Monday. Maybe, given the eyesight dangers of viewing a partial eclipse, you could have stretched it a bit with Manfred Mann’s “Blinded by the Light,” but then, there you have it — a two-song party mix.

(I thought there was a third, but Herald music connoisseur Carlton Fletcher told me that song by John Denver, wasn’t “Hey, Eclipse-Oh” after all, but “Aye Calypso,” and was about Jacques Cousteau’s boat, not a solar event.)

But there’s another one coming up in the U.S. in seven years, so maybe some enterprising songwriter got inspired Monday.

More importantly, let’s hope some of the hundreds of thousands of kids across America — including the ones here in Dougherty County — got inspired. Watching something big like the solar eclipse may inspire them to look at some of the smaller but also remarkable things that go on in our world every day. Who knows what advances might come down the road from a brilliant mind that was inspired to pursue science because he or she got the chance to see it in action on a grand scale?

If the eclipse inspires even a few kids to become scientists, it may just be the best thing that comes out of this summer of ‘17, soundtrack or no soundtrack.

Email Jim Hendricks at [email protected]. Follow @ABH_JHendricks.