Not that long ago, I had a kid ask me what my favorite thing about science was. I had to think about it for a minute. I mean, it's not an easy question. Science put humans on the moon and has shown us the depths of time and space. With a little applied chemistry, you can create all sorts of spectacular and safe (for us professionals, anyway) pyrotechnics. Hell, science gave us the technology to create Fallout 3.

After consideration, though, I gave him the answer "My favorite thing about science is that, when I think like a scientist, I'm better at knowing true things from false things." That may seem self-explanatory, but I think it bears a bit of unpacking.