I remember when I was in high school I had almost no interest in academics. I suppose I was a stereotypical jock. However, I was not talented enough to do anything professional in sports, so when I left high school I had no idea what I was going to do with my life. When I went to college I was completely directionless. That is, until I was exposed to various science courses. I became completely obsessed with scientific inquiry and it changed both my perspective and direction in life. Does anyone else have a similar experience? If science is an important aspect of your life now, how has it changed your perspective on life? Did it change your perspective suddenly? Or was it a gradual process? Have you changed your direction in life because of knowledge from the sciences?
Hands down, the fact that we're so small in a universe so big with things way smaller than us is something that has really stuck with me in the last year. I want to say that I'm influenced, but I'm more inclined to say that my mind is just constantly being blown, especially at night when I can see out into the rest of the universe.
Mindblownology 101 (Earth & Life): 1) There are other species on our planet that make tools, learn language, and develop traditions. 2) All life (from a bacterium to a giant squid to a Kim Kardashian shares the same basic genetic structure and a common ancestor that existed 3.5 billion years ago 3) There were other human species on this planet only 12,000-13,000 years ago There were up to four different species on Eurasia alone (that we know about), and we probably interacted and mated with at least two of them 4) Our species emerged from an area smaller than modern day Eritrea about 200,000 years ago, and managed to colonize almost every available landmass on the planet in less than 60,000 years 5) All complex multi-cellular life on the planet has emerged in only the last 500 million years of Earth's history. That means for 90% of Earth's existence there was either no life or only life that you would need a microscope to see with a human eye!
Via Anthropology. I was moderately interested in science, but it wasn't until I chose Anthropology as my direction that I actually started understanding and enjoying biology. From that, my enjoyment of science has continually expanded to include other scientific sub-disciplines.
Always nice to have another anthropologist on Hubski! You may love THE ADVANCED APES. Are you still in undergrad? If not, what are you doing with your degree? What was your specialization?
I finished my Masters, focusing on theory, linguistic theory for the thesis. I haven't used my education much in work, as we both know, you need the Ph.D. for that, but I have never regretted my study. I use it every day. I no longer live in the country of my birth (USA), and am surrounded by people from a wide variety of other cultures on a daily basis.
For me, it's always been an intrinsic part of my life; I always recall being deeply interested in science and the world around us. Probably, the genesis of it for me is PBS and many shows like Nova and 3-2-1 Contact. Plus, growing up with the space shuttle doing regular trips helped a lot, too. I wanted to be an astronaut. The biggest moment in my life that solidified it all was when I was in high school and was able to get into a special national program that brought together high school students with scientists. I eventually ended up at Goddard for the summer, and then I got invited back for followup programs several summers afterward: working at JPL with scientists and the astronauts at Johnson. Many things have happened after that, but I'm really grateful for the experience. It helped a small town Ohioan to get out and see the world, and helped make me who I am today.
Wow, that sounds like a phenomenal experience! Are you still associated with JPL? What are your thoughts on Curiosity mission so far?
Thanks! I'm not there currently. I did consider it as a place I wanted to return to after I was done with my degrees, but I ended up someplace just as good. While it's not space science, we still do a lot of fundamental science for the public good. I try to keep track of my scientist friends that helped me, but some of them have moved on from JPL. I did have a chance to meet Sally Ride, too, as she was part of one of the projects I worked on as a high school student and undergraduate. I'm so grateful to them and what they did for me. I guess you can say I was a success story of science education. I think all of the JPL missions are great; I don't know if I really have anything profound to say other than I find the images and new science that they are discovering about Mars just really phenomenal. It makes me proud that I used to be part of the organization.
I can definitely understand why you feel pride after having worked for JPL. Here were some of my thoughts about Curiosity after their big announcement in December.
How did science change your views on spirituality and religion?
Since I don't think that science supports the idea of a soul, I have no need for a religion to explain it.
Don't take this too harshly, but this isn't a great way to think about religion. Science is excellent, and can and will take you very, very far. But there are things for which an explanation does not help, and general philosophy and religion are for those times in life. It's not anti-science to admit that a problem's resolution and its answer can be separate things. This probably sounds condescending, but I've just seen a lot of atheist friends descend into nihilism because they've already decided that the things that can give consolation don't work because they don't give answers.
I'm a huge space enthusiast, and love learning about the universe and our place in it. I mean, it's where we came from. Elaborating on Sagan's "We are star stuff" type quote, the heavier elements in our blood, like Iron, were only produced inside of other stars during the fusion process, and only exist here and in use because those stars died, exploded, and later formed a new generation of stars with planets around them. This little blurb by NDT during one of his speeches expresses how I feel, and how looking up at the stars is almost spiritual for me. The first 5 minutes or so of this video kind of sums up my thoughts quite eloquently... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rDRXn96HrtY As a result I'm obsessed with space exploration, and more importantly manned space exploration... which hasn't really done too much yet, but we're working on it. And the scientists and engineers like Von Braun or Elon Musk that are working on getting humans out into our universe are very inspiring for me. It's what gives me hope for our species, yet many people don't seem to give a shit about it.
Great. I definitely share your passion for space. You may enjoy this.
Learning about advancements in technology on the horizon, and understanding the limitless things there are to be discovered, just within our own world, has made me come to view many of the problems that we have today as temporary/fixable. Are they still important? Yes. Will they be the end of us? I don't think so, not if we are diligent with our utility. I read an article earlier on in the week about research being done to 'grow' meat. As in, taking inorganic matter, and making it into a hamburger. Yesterday I read about batteries powered by our own body heat. Two months ago, I read that researchers have successfully created 'mechanical trees' which function to take in CO2 and release oxygen. This is just the beginning, and doesn't even begin to delve into the fundamental things we are starting to understand about the building blocks of the universe. I feel as though humanity has made it to the part of the movie where its running from the building that's about to explode. I think we're going to make it. I think that our technology will trump our problems. I am hopeful. :)
I was a sad kid during adolescence. Being frustrated with my situation — poverty, broken family, bad with the ladies — I blamed myself. Eventually, I got tired of it all and decided I wanted it fixed. The only one of the three I could reasonably change was my poor skills with women, so that was the first step. I found the pick-up community on various websites and watched videos of people in action, but I was told that no matter what techniques and tricks you use, you won't get anywhere unless your inner game is developed. This began my journey to fixing the real problem: my self-esteem. I found things like this which really helped me realize how much power I have over myself. That realization led me to inquire over what makes me who I am. Eventually, I found myself curious about neuroscience. Now I'm in college studying it for the sake of improvement to myself and because I am genuinely curious about the mechanics. The examined life is indeed worth living.
Very much so, as I'm a Chemical Engineering student. It puts into perspective just how much work goes into both creating say, a new pharmaceutical product, and how much MORE work goes into scaling up the process to make it. There is an absurd amount of science and math that goes into any sort of scale up, be it medicine or beer. Alcohol is the best example, as it's something that most people take for granted, but is very easy to mess up when making large quantities of it.