When my son was born 15 years ago the thought that kept going through my mind was, “What they hell is going on inside that little head?” I was fascinated and mystified by my own little squirming mystery box. But unlike most other new parents, my wife and I are both behavioral scientists, trained to explore mysteries with hypotheses and experiments. So, we began collecting the many classic experiments we’d learned in classes and our own research and concocted them on our own tiny bouncing black box of joy.

What was he learning? In fact, what could he learn and how did it change? (So much all of the time! In fact, all of those little squirmy movements were a part of learning.) Why did he cry when some people held him but not others? (Beards!) Who does, or even can he, recognize? (A few but not too well by sight.) Does he know any words before he begins speaking? (Yes!)

In those months, and for years after, I’ve been wanting to write down the recipes for those experiments that produced safe and reliable insights into our son. I result is this book The Experiment in the Crib: 10 experiments you can “mad scientist” on your own baby. The idea is simple, safe, yet illuminating experiments that offer an insight into the growing mind inside your own infant.

And once we had that idea, I realized that there was an entire line of books here on all of the mysterious “others” in your life:

• The Experiment in the Sandbox for all of those weird and wonderful toddlers
• The Experiment in the Dog House for the your canine bundle of unconditional love
• What’s up with grumpy teens? The Experiment that is Puberty
• The Romance Experiment for the mysteries of love
• And, if you’re truly brave or brazen, The Experiment in the C-Suite—what the hell is going on in your boss’s head…if anything.