Monday Lab Tracks: They Might Be Giants

They Might Be Giants has been making catchy alternative rock songs since the 80’s (you may have heard of them, they’re kind of a big deal). A little while ago they got into the business of writing songs for children, actually winning a Grammy for their children’s album Here Come the 123s.

Today’s Lab Track, or pair of them, comes from their album Here Comes Science (another track of which Teen Skepchick featured on their Friday music series!). I chose these two tunes because of the brilliant demonstration of revising claims to fit the evidence.

In this first example, they explain (with an infectious melody, I might add) that “the sun is a mass of incandescent gas,” and that “scientists have found that the sun is a huge atom-crushing machine.” Give it a listen [EDIT: I’ve just been informed (by commenter Breadbox) that this wasn’t actually written by them. The lyrics are by Hy Zaret and the music is by Lou Singer. Credit where credit is due, yo.]:

Then, they found this to actually be inaccurate. The sun isn’t made of gas, and doesn’t crush atoms so much as fuse them. So instead of leaving it as-is and chalking it up to valid artistic expression, they wrote another song:

Since including the lyrics to two tunes is so space-consuming, I’ll only include abridged versions. You can click at the link at the top of each lyric quotation to see the full song.

Why Does the Sun Shine?

The sun is a mass of incandescent gas
A gigantic nuclear furnace
Where hydrogen is built into helium
At a temperature of millions of degrees

Yo ho, it’s hot
The sun is not
A place where we could live
But here on Earth there’d be no life
Without the light it gives

We need its light
We need its heat
We need its energy
Without the sun
Without a doubt
There’d be no you and me

The sun is hot
It is so hot that everything on it is a gas
Iron, copper, aluminum, and many others

The sun is large
If the sun were hollow, a million Earths could fit inside
And yet, the sun is only a middle-sized star

The sun is far away
About ninety-three million miles away! And that’s why it looks so small
And even when it’s out of sight, the sun shines night and day

Scientists have found that the sun is a huge atom-smashing machine
The heat and light of the sun come from the nuclear reactions of
hydrogen, carbon, nitrogen, and helium

Why Does the Sun Really Shine?

The sun is a miasma
Of incandescent plasma
The sun’s not simply made out of gas

The sun is a quagmire
It’s not made of fire
Forget what you’ve been told in the past

(Plasma!)
Electrons are free
(Plasma!)
A fourth state of matter
Not gas, not liquid, not solid

The sun is no red dwarf
I hope it never morphs
Into some supernova’d collapsed orb

The sun is a miasma
Of incandescent plasma
I forget what I was told by myself

(Plasma!)
Forget that song
(Plasma!)
They got it wrong
That thesis has been rendered invalid

This has been another installment of Monday Lab Tracks. Send us your musical recommendations through our contact link at the top of the page, and tell us what you think of the song in the comments below!