As any Ogre Battle fan can attest, there's something undeniably cool about the look and feel of tarot cards. At the same time, the more science-minded among us might bristle at turning over their fates to a deck of magical cards. But what if you could combine tarot cards' structure and aesthetic with neat examples from science and a little less hocus-pocus?

That, anyway, is the conceit behind the Science Tarot, whose creators describe it as "a creative science communication project that combines science, art, and mythology into a tarot deck to engage and awaken people's curiosity about science and the natural world."

In addition to swapping the traditional cards of the tarot for scientific phenomena, the deck replaces the wands, pentacles, swords, and cups of traditional tarot with Bunsen burners, magnifying glasses, scalpels, and beakers. There are other nice touches: Face cards become scientists like [American naturalist] John Muir, Joseph Campbell's Hero's Journey "is adapted to tell each suit's unique story from Ace to Ten," and neurotransmitters even comprise their own special subset of cards.