General Knowledgespeaking topic
Why was Copernicus's sun-centered model of the universe a revolution not just in astronomy but in humanity's sense of its place in the cosmos? Let's talk about Earth losing its spot at the center.
— Copernicus and the heliocentric model
practice with this topic
Set the timer (5-30 min), take 20 seconds of prep if you like, start talking. Jot your thoughts onto the sticky-note board.
similar topics
- Ice was once shipped to tropical countries and made men fortunes; ice cut from New England lakes traveled as far as India, and even though half of it melted on the way, the trade still turned a profit. The cold that flows from the tap today was a luxury yesterday. How does abundance zero out a thing's value so fast?
- Some cultures count the 'day' from dawn, others from sunset; in Jewish and Islamic tradition the day begins in the evening. So the question 'when does today start' has no universal answer. Is the new day opened by the moment we wake, or by the moment the sun goes down?
- Why is Leonardo da Vinci the very symbol of the 'Renaissance man'? Let's talk about a mind that united art, anatomy, engineering, and observation.
- Among the Roma and in some other societies, what matters is not how many years old you are but which events you have lived through; people say 'I was born in the year of the flood.' Time is kept with stories instead of numbers. Did reducing our birth date to a figure make time easier, or did it drain the soul out of it?
- Is it greener to wash dishes by hand or in the machine? Intuition says by hand, but modern dishwashers use less water and less energy. Why does our intuition fail here, and what do the measurements say?