Science isn't for everyone and not everyone has their webpage set to PopSci.com (odds are it's set to Gmail or your e-mail server - so maybe that's a moot point), but there are ways to make science appealing to mass audiences. If you find the right hard science-fiction novel or film you might be able to glean something, but then you have to sort around the fiction part and any liberties taken with a concept. As much as it can be a good approach, I'd really rather people didn't think Kevin Bacon and Tom Hanks narrowly avoided suffocation in space thanks to the quick thinking of Gary Sinise just because Ron Howard was too damned convincing with Apollo 13. Instead, I'd point you towards science as instructed through song.
There are plenty examples of this, although I think the most famous is the re-recording of a 1960's kids song by They Might Be Giants, "Why Does the Sun Shine? (The Sun Is a Mass of Incandescent Gas)". Just a note, the below video is the music video for the song, but there are some noticeable differences between the song as it appears here and it's more widespread live recording (which is so much better).
Granted, the information is kind of piled on thick there, but it's so damn catchy and fast that the words aren't hard to memorize and recall when you need it. However, that song is actually out of date. But you know what? Just as science constantly updates obsolete information, so can a songwriter. Behold, the follow up by They Might Be Giants, "Why Does the Sun Really Shine? (The Sun is a Miasma of Incandescent Plasma)". Okay, this isn't nearly as catchy, but the point remains: it's effectively conveying information.
These are just a few songs off of their kids-oriented educationally-inclined albums that have been their major focus as of late, and yet I'll confess to enjoying more than a few songs off of those albums as much as some of their classic hits. Yet you don't need to be a hit recording entity to educate the world about science through song. Just look at Brighter Lights, Thicker Glasses who, among some folk covers of hit songs, wrote a great song called "Cambrian Explosion" about the surge of life from the sea and the millions and millions of years that followed. Again, not only educational, but really easy to listen to.
The vocals have a smokey, almost John Mayer quality to them, and there's some clever instrumentation amongst the plethora of scientific factoids. You really can't go wrong. Or hey, want to explain to your kid how they exist without describing sex and instead focusing on how recombinant DNA from their two parents resulted in them? Or how that DNA could also result in cancer or allergies? Then try "That Spells DNA", a little rock anthem by Jonathan Coulton, a former programmer for Popular Science who now writes scientifically themed music.
Finally, we have a rap about evolution. I don't think I need to say this isn't by Jay-Z or Snoop Dogg, but rather by Baba Brinkman and it's called "Natural Selection" off his album Rap Guide to Evolution. FYI, it's off his spot on The Rachel Maddow Show, so skip to about 1:35 if you just want the music.
Oh, and just because it's a personal favorite, a song about paleontology by They Might Be Giants.
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