Recently, I came across a new and exciting series of intellectual discussions and reveals. They are the Science Friday series by NPR (national public radio). Every Friday, instead of Market Place, Ira Flatow hosts this show, as a foray into the world of science - from quantum mechanics to cooking, outer space to insects.
In addition, there is also a weekly video post hosted by Flora Lichtman (she occasionally shows up on the radio show too). They add a visual factor to these sneak peaks at the nifty, sciencey, geeky things that exist in the world around us. On occasion the topics overlap with the radio episodes, and sometimes the things you see just blow your mind (or at least they blew mine :P).
I ended up enjoying them so much, that I have downloaded the podcasts and followed them via RSS feed. And I am currently working my way backwards through the episodes - though they go back to 2007, so it might take a while to get through them all...
But the great part is that, unlike current event shows (like Wait wait don't tell me), the older shows won't lose my interest in the fast moving world we live in - science is forever... Well, at least it's interesting forever ^_^.
I guess what I enjoy, is that I not only feel smart when they talk about the things I know, but it's like they found the coolest things that are in our universe, and give you a glimpse of just how science is basically everywhere and makes everything work. And to the nerd in me, well, it's quite heavenly.
So I've decided that I'd like to share these with you (the first of which is continued later in the post). Sure, I could post one a week, with each weekly release. But that might not happen. I'm more keen on sharing the ones that make me excited or get me to think. And with me going through the past episodes, I can't confirm my frequency of posting. But I will definitely be trying to regularly post something, just for my own sake :D.
But before you continue reading, there are a few updates I'd like to mention. I have added another segment to my visual archive of shoes. I have also decided to no longer end my little scratches with a line. The purpose of the line was for my previous arrangement of the little scratches - and well since I don't use that format, the line has no real use other than to make me do more work.
Anyway, onto the first installment of my takes on Science Friday.
The first I'd like to share with you is the first of the series that I watched - Shooting Stars.
Ok, first off, this is amazing. Forget exploring the universe, let's just look at it from afar. There is a stark beauty to the cosmos. I feel like a little kid again when I watched this, being starstruck by, well, stars.
I think the first thing that came to mind during this video, is that Hawaii is a great place for this kind of photography. I mean, in the middle of the Pacific, on the big island (pretty much everyone is off grid), and there were the most beautiful night skies I've ever seen. It's also home to a famous observatory that is located near the peak of some of the more quiet volcanoes on the big island. Oh man, I wanna go back and visit... Anyway, awesome place to observe the skies, trust me - even scientists agree with me :).
It reminds me of the time a few of us rented a zipcar and drove out of the city to see the meteor shower back in 2009. We were so far out, we were a little scared that we might get shot by the people who owned the farm land we decided to camp out on. We could barely make out the falling meteors, little bursts of lines drawn in the atmosphere. You could see the glow of the light pollution in the city - and we had to face away just to block it out and make sure our eyes would adjust to the darkness.
It was times like that I missed being home in the suburbs, living on the top of a hill. You could see the stars and planets (even my dad enjoyed pointing out Mars over the horizon and pondering if it was indeed Venus in the skies). There used to be a family that lived in our neighborhood, an older couple, that owned a telescope. And every Halloween, in addition to the candy, the husband would take out his telescope and give kids a chance to take a closer look at the night sky and even twiddle with the dials ourselves. Of course, though both candy and telescope were given to the kids, my mother gave my brother and I the restriction, "you can only pick one". So obviously we ran to the telescope (even went back in like for a second or third look). We were absolutely heart broken the year there was no telescope. Unfortunately that couple moved out of our development. Though I can still point out to you the driveway where we got those special glimpses at the skies.
I could go on and on about how much I gravitated towards outer space, but I'm pretty sure I'll end up going on for way too long. And that wouldn't help considering two other trains of thought ran through my head after watching this video. Both of them, oddly, deal with time.
I think this photographer is a bit inspiring, because he not only is a photographer - he's also a geologist, working in the the real world (basically not in academics). He is has taken the time to pursue not only a career but also his passion for photography, and do amazing things like capture the solar eclipse.
I thought to myself, I want to do cool things like photograph the skies. But the thing is, there are a lot of things that I want to do: piano, oil painting, crocheting, books, movies, tv shows, concerts, snowboarding, orchestral and ballet performances, travel, wine, shoes, a career, gaming, exercise, bass guitar, cello, rock climbing, even blogging. I want to do all these things, but I wonder, where is the time for all of this? And where is the time to learn or proficiently accomplish all of these things in the limited hours we have in each day? Especially if the career I plan on following consumes so much time? Because really, there is no such thing as a jack-of-all-trades. Not one that's masterful at every trade.
In the end must you chose what desires you wish to indulge, and leave the rest to the curb? At times it feels like it isn't worth it in the end. It's so easy to stick with where you are and focus on one thing at a time. Where's the time to do anything else? There's only 24hrs in a day, and not all of them are spent awake or efficiently. There is too much that I want to do, and too little time to do it.
And just to be complicated, another tangent popped in my head. Some of these snap shots are shown to us as snippets of 30 seconds. In a way just like how videos of blooming flowers are. These are compressed hours and days and weeks or still images taken at various intervals. There is no continuous footage.
But here we are in a world focused on the instantaneous. We want things faster and sooner and immediately. Which is great, we have technological advances that help that. But the universe we live in, moves at a much slower rate. And yet it has existed for so much longer than we have. It's almost as if what happens in a day for us, is really just a second to them. Or how maybe the distance of a light year is spanned in a second when it would take us years. It is like their scale of time is skewed to their span of life.
I mean even in Hinduism that kind of concept exists. Now I'll try to explain without getting to in depth. It is believed that there is an existance or entity, genderless, timeless - that is the creator of the entire universe. That we only existed because that entity opened its eyes. And billions of years of time that the universe has existed and will exist are all contained within the time it take for this entity to blink. The moment that existence closes its eyes - our universe no longer exists. [This also can lead into the whole Schrodinger's cat theory in quantum mechanics, or the philosophical questions - does something exist only because it has been observed thing - but let's just stick to my point] So basically in the time it takes to blink, this universe has existed for eons of time. And it all comes to an end, only to be repeated the next time its eyes are open.
It's kind of like the faster you charge through life, the more likely your life will come to an end. So maybe it's a good thing to "stop and smell the roses". Maybe slowing down every once in a while is the key. After all, the things that move on a slower time scale seem to last much longer and have more time in the end.
Aite, so there is my first installment. I hope it made a glimpse of sense - when I look back at what I wrote, I have no idea if anyone will understand what I meant. But things will be as they are, and I'll probably still think as I do - and well, there's no way I'm going to rewrite this entire thing again, so you'll just have to be satisfied with being confused by my words/thoughts :P
I hope you will enjoy these!
No comments:
Post a Comment