They Might Be Giants Album

Science is real
From the Big Bang to DNA
Science is real
From evolution to the Milky Way

I like the stories
About angels, unicorns and elves
Now I like the stories
As much as anybody else

But when I'm seeking knowledge
Either simple or abstract
The facts are with science
The facts are with science

Science is real
Science is real
Science is real

Science is real
From anatomy to geology
Science is real
From astrophysics to biology

A scientific theory
Isn't just a hunch or guess
It's more like a question
That's been put through a lot of tests

And when a theory emerges
Consistent with the facts
The proof is with science
The truth is with science

Science is real
Science is real
Science is real
Science is real

Iron is a metal, you see it every day
Oxygen, eventually will make it rust away
Carbon in its ordinary form is coal
Crush it together and diamonds are born

Come on, come on and meet the elements
May I introduce you to our friends, the elements?
Like a box of paints that are mixed to make every shade
They either combine to make a chemical compound
Or stand alone as they are

Neon's a gas that lights up the sign for a pizza place
The coins that you pay with are copper, nickel and zinc
Silicon and oxygen make concrete bricks and glass
Now add some gold and silver for some pizza place class

Come on, come on and meet the elements
I think you should check out the ones they call the elements
Like a box of paints that are mixed to make every shade
They either combine to make a chemical compound
Or stand alone as they are

Team up with other elements making compounds when they combine
Or make up a simple element formed out of atoms of the one kind
Balloons are full of helium and so is every star
Stars are mostly hydrogen which may someday fill your car

Hey, who let in all these elephants?
Did you know that elephants are made of elements?
Elephants are mostly made of four elements
And every living thing is mostly made of four elements
Plants, bugs, birds, fish, bacteria and men
Are mostly carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen and oxygen

Come on, come on and meet the elements
You and I are complicated but we're made of elements
Like a box of paints that are mixed to make every shade
They either combine to make a chemical compound
Or stand alone as they are

Team up with other elements making compounds when they combine
Or make up a simple element formed out of atoms of the one kind

Come on, come on and meet the elements
Check out the ones they call the elements
Like a box of paints that are mixed to make every shade
They either combine to make a chemical compound
Or stand alone as they are

I love diggin' in the dirt
With just a pick and brush
Finding fossils is my aim
So I'm never in a rush
'Cause the treasures that I seek
Are rare and ancient things
Like Velociraptor's jaw
Or Archaeopteryx's wings

Now all the kids
Who wanna see 'em
Are lining up
At our museum

I am a paleontologist
That's who I am, that's who I am, that's who I am
I am a paleontologist
That's who I am, that's who I am, that's who I am

Could it be an herbivore
Crushing plants with rounded teeth
Or ferocious carnivore
Who moves so quickly on its feet
It's like pieces of a puzzle
That I love to try and solve
It's so fun to think about
How a species has evolved

And all the kids
Who wanna see 'em
Can check 'em out
At our museum

I am a paleontologist
That's who I am, that's who I am, that's who I am
I am a paleontologist
That's who I am, that's who I am, that's who I am

Is it a T-rex? (I keep digging, digging, digging, digging)
(Digging, digging, digging, digging)
Maybe a Triceratops? (Digging, digging, digging, digging)
(Digging, digging, digging, digging)
Or a Carnotaur? (Digging, digging, digging, digging)
(Digging, digging, digging, digging)
(Digging, digging, digging, digging, diggin')
Pachycephalosaurus?

I am a paleontologist
That's who I am, that's who I am, that's who I am
I am a paleontologist
That's who I am, that's who I am, that's who I am
That's who I am, that's who I am, that's who I am
That's who I am, that's who I am, that's who I am

The Bloodmobile, the Bloodmobile
A delivery service inside us

We begin in the heart's right ventricle
And travel to the lungs
Red blood cells get oxygen
To take back to the heart

Then from the left side of the heart
And out to every cell
Delivered by the Bloodmobile

The food that's been digested
Is waiting at the dock
To be taken to the tissues
In the body's grocery truck

So from the small intestine
It's carried everywhere
Delivered by the Bloodmobile

The Bloodmobile, the Bloodmobile
A delivery service inside us

The white blood cells are soldiers
That fight infectious germs
They make the antibodies
Their weapons in the fight

The army is transported
Wherever they must go
Delivered by the Bloodmobile

We need to send a message
To tell a limb to grow
Or speed the heart or regulate
Your hunger or your sleep

The hormones are the message
They're sent from many glands
The messenger's the Bloodmobile

Somebody's got to haul out the trash
To the liver and the kidneys
It's not a pretty job
Carbon dioxide gets carried
To the lungs to be exhaled
And the garbage truck is the Bloodmobile

The Bloodmobile, the Bloodmobile
A delivery service inside us

To carry oxygen, nutrients
Things that fight infections
Do the trash collection and deliver the mail
And we're all
(And we're all)
Delivered by the Bloodmobile

Electric car on roads so dark
To change the end rewrite the start
Electric car so good so far

Electric car on verdant green
Invent a turn invent a dream
Electric car the new machine

Let's take a ride in an electric car
To the west side in an electric car
How can you deny an electric car
Won't you take a ride with me
Come on and take a ride with me!!

Electric car beside the tree
Will past the dock will past the sea
Electric car roll silently

Electric car on roads so dark
To change the end rewrite the start
Electric car so good so far

Let's take a ride in an electric car
To the west side in an electric car
How can you deny an electric car
Won't you take a ride with me
Come on and take a ride with me!

(No diesel steam or gasoline)
Let's take a ride in an electric car
Happiness resides in an electric car
You can even drive an electric car
Won't you take a ride with me
Come on and take a ride with me!!

Let's take a ride in an electric car
To the west side in an electric car
How can you deny an electric car
Won't you take a ride with me
Come on and take a ride with me!!

Well, I got the invitation that you sent to everyone
And I told you family picnics weren't exactly my idea of fun
You replied that everyone but me said they were going to come
Which is how you talked me into going to the reunion
When you said everyone you really meant it

My brother the ape
My brother the ape

I received the photos you sent and I don't regret that I went
Or the sight of everybody stiffly posing under one tent
But I don't feel I belong and I keep wanting to escape
And I fail to see the likeness between me and my brother the ape

They all kept saying
(They all kept saying)
How much we look alike
(How much we look alike)
I don't think that we look alike at all
(I don't think that we look alike at all)

But I'll admit that I look more like a chimp
Than I look like my cousin the shrimp
Or my distant kin the lichens or the snowy egret or the moss
And I find it hard to recognize some relatives of ours
Like the rotifer, the sycamore, iguanas and sea stars

My brother the ape
My brother the ape

They say you don't get
(They say you don't get)
To choose your family
(To choose your family)
But there's no other one to choose
(But there's no other one to choose)

So that's why I'm writing this now and you can tell my sister the cow
That I meant to thank her for the Gorgonzola
And I'll allow that I've been acting like a stranger
But you guys are all so strange though I think of what I'm like
And I can see we're all the same
So this time next year we'll meet at my place

My brother the ape
My brother the ape

A shooting star is not a star
It's not a star at all
A shooting star's a meteor
That's heading for a fall

A shooting star is not a star
Why does it shine so bright?
The friction as it falls through air
Produces heat and light

A shooting star, or meteor
Whichever name you like
The minute it comes down to Earth
It's called a meteorite

A shooting star is not a star
It's not a star at all (a shooting star is not a star)
A shooting star's a meteor (it's not a star at all)
that's heading for a fall (a shooting star's a meteor)
A shooting star is not a star (that's heading for a fall)
Why does it shine so bright? (a shooting star is not a star)
The friction as it falls through air (why does it shine so bright?)
Produces heat and light (the friction as it falls through air)
A shooting star or meteor (produces heat and light)
Whichever name you like (a shooting star, or meteor)
The minute it comes down to Earth (whichever name you like)
It's called a meteorite (the minute it comes down to Earth)
It's called a meteorite

Mercury
Venus
Earth
Mars
Asteroid Belt

Ceres
Pallas
Vesta
And a bunch of other stuff

Jupiter
Saturn
Uranus
Neptune
Don't forget about Pluto
Eris
And a bunch of other stuff

Mercury
Venus
Earth
Mars
Jupiter
Saturn
Uranus
Neptune
And a bunch of other stuff (And a bunch of other stuff)
And a bunch of other stuff (And a bunch of other stuff)
And a bunch of other stuff

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

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 still only a middle-sized star

The sun is far away
About 93,000,000 miles away, and that's why it looks so small
And even when it's out of sight, the sun shines night and day

The sun gives heat, the sun gives light, the sunlight that we see
The sunlight comes from our own sun's atomic energy

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

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

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

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 93 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

The sun gives heat, the sun gives light
The sunlight that we see
The sunlight comes from our own suns
Atomic energy

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

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

R is for red
O is for orange
Y is for yellow
And G is for green
B is for blue
I for Indigo
And V is for violet
And that spells Roy G. Biv

Roy G. Biv is a colorful man
And he proudly stands at the rainbow's end (So you'll see him)
Roy G. Biv is a colorful man
And his name spells out the whole color spectrum (So you'll see him)

Roy G. Biv is a colorful man (So you'll see him)
And he proudly stand at the rainbow's end (So you'll see him)
Roy G. Biv is a colorful man
And his name spells out the whole color spectrum (So you'll see him)

You'll never see a unicorn
But you'll see a rainbow
And inside every rainbow
Is the spectrum of light

You'll never see Roy G. Biv
But he's inside the rainbow
'Cause inside every rainbow
Is the spectrum of light

R is for red
O is for orange
Y is for yellow
And G is for green
B is for blue
I for Indigo
And V is for violet
And that spells Roy G. Biv

Roy G. Biv is a colorful man (So you'll see him)
And he proudly stand at the rainbow's end (So you'll see him)
Roy G. Biv is a colorful man
And his name spells out the whole color spectrum (So you'll see him)

Roy G. Biv is a colorful man (So you'll see him)
And he proudly stand at the rainbow's end (So you'll see him)
Roy G. Biv is a colorful man
And his name spells out the whole color spectrum (So you'll see him)

If there's a question bothering your brain
That you think you know how to explain
You need a test
Yeah, think up a test

If it's possible to prove it wrong
You're going to want to know before too long
You'll need a test

If somebody says they figured it out
And they're leaving any room for doubt
Come up with a test
Yeah, you need a test

Are you sure that that thing is true?
Or did someone just tell it to you?
Come up with a test

Test it out
Find a way to show what would happen
If you were incorrect
(Test it out)
A fact is just a fantasy
Unless it can be checked
Make a test
Test it out

If you want to know if it's the truth
Then, my friend, you are going to need proof
Come up with a test
Yeah, you need a test

Don't believe it 'cause they say it's so
If it's not true, you have a right to know
Put it to the test (put it to the test)
Yeah, test it out (put it to the test)
Yeah, put it to the test (put it to the test)
Put it to the test (put it to the test)

Photosynthesis
Photosynthesis
Photosynthesis

Photosynthesis does not involve a camera
Or a synthesizer although that's interesting too
Photosynthesis is how plants take in light
From the sun and turn it into energy
It's actually a thing on which most life depends
Here on the planet Earth

Photosynthesis
Photosynthesis
Photosynthesis with plants

Chlorophyll cells take in carbon dioxide
Now that's the air that we breathe out
Combines it with water and exposes it to sunlight
And that's how plants can make their own food

Photosynthesis is why plants need light
And photosynthesis is why humans need plants
Because through photosynthesis plants make oxygen
And humans need oxygen to breathe

Photosynthesis
Photosynthesis
Photosynthesis

Life is made out of cells
Cells make copies of themselves (copies of themselves)
And they make copies of themselves (and they make copies of themselves)
And they make copies of themselves

Different cells have different jobs
But they all have one thing in common
Inside of every cell is a twisted ladder
A recipe for life called DNA
The directions are written out in the ladder's rungs
Where they can be found
In every cell of everything that lives

A cell knows what it has to do
To grow into some moss or a shrew
Algae or a kangaroo
Bug or a sunflower
Dwight David Eisenhower
A frog, a fish or you
Cells are small, too small to see
But together they can make a tree

Within the cell there's a tiny spiral staircase
That tells the cell just how it's going to grow
The instructions are spelled out in letters
One on every step
In a language that the cell knows how to read

Inside the cell is a tiny double helix
Another fancy word for DNA
Which could also be a spiral staircase
Which could also be a twisted ladder
Which could also be a spring

Which could also be a spiral staircase
Which could also be a twisted ladder
Or a crazy looking spring

When I'm on an airplane
And we're on a runway
Ready to take off
And then we're in the air

Motion, direction, acceleration
Motion, direction, acceleration

I've got speed (that's how fast I am moving)
I've got velocity (that's my speed and direction)

When I'm on my Big Wheel
Skateboard
Roller coaster
Race car
Motorcycle
Rocket ship
Into outer space

Motion (keep movin', keep movin', keep movin')
Direction (which way, anyway, uptown, all around)
Acceleration (let's go faster)
Acceleration (let's go faster)

I've got
Speed (that's how fast I am moving)
I've got velocity (that's my speed and direction)
I've got speed (that's how fast I am moving)
I've got velocity (that's my speed and direction)

Computer assisted design
See how you get from a thought to an object
Computer assisted design
It takes an idea and makes 3D stuff
Computer assisted design

Bam
Crunch
Bolt
Smash
Crash
Twitch

Computer assisted design
See how you get from a thought to an object
Computer assisted design
It takes an idea and makes 3D stuff
Computer assisted design

Solid
Liquid
Gas

Solid
Liquid
Gas

Ice is a solid
Water is a liquid
Steam is a gas

Rock is a solid (rock is a solid)
Milk is a liquid (milk is a liquid)
And air is a gas

When water's warm enough
It's a liquid
When it's cold enough
It's a solid
And when it's hot enough
It's a gas
So could you make the air so cold it would be solid?
Could you make rock so warm it would be liquid?
Could you make milk so hot it would be a gas?

Solid
Liquid
Gas

Ready or not Here Comes Science
They Might Be Giants
Here Comes Science

Davy, Davy Crockett
Traveling through outer space

Reborn in the stratosphere and Saturn-bound
Flying fast and miles off the ground
Jumped from the spaceship just to look around
And shot off his gun without making a sound

Davy, Davy Crockett
King of this brand new place
Davy, Davy Crockett
Traveling through outer space

Off went his rocket at the speed of light
Flying so fast there was no day or night
Messing around with the fabric of time
He knows who's guilty 'fore there's even a crime

Davy, Davy Crockett
The buckskin astronaut
Davy, Davy Crockett
There's more than we were taught

Hiding in the cargo was a robot drone
Programmed to destroy Davy's spaceship home
Davy switched out his brains, now the drone's a dog clone
Named him Copernicus and threw him a bone

Davy, Davy Crockett
King of this brand new place
Davy, Davy Crockett
Traveling through outer space

Davy, Davy Crockett
King of this brand new place
Davy, Davy Crockett
Traveling through outer space