Time and Space, Space and Time. Tick: a life form emerges; Tock: a sun explodes; Tick: a galaxy is ripped apart; Tock: a star is formed. Our universe is absolutely amazing.
When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it is tied to everything else in the universe.
-John Muir (1838-1914) U. S. naturalist, explorer.
I am among those who think that science has great beauty. A scientist in his laboratory is not only a technician: he is also a child placed before natural phenomena which impress him like a fairy tale.
Marie Curie (1867 – 1934)
If one is sufficiently lavish with time, everything possible happens.
– Herodotus
“Rivers shift, oceans fall, and mountains drift.”
-R.E.M., “Feeling Gravity’s Pull”
We have a hunger of the mind which asks for knowledge of all around us, and the more we gain, the more is our desire; the more we see, the more we are capable of seeing.
-Maria Mitchell, Astronomer (1818-1889)
If nature were not beautiful, it would not be worth knowing, and if nature were not worth knowing, life would not be worth living.
-Jules Henri Poincaré (1854-1912), French mathematician.
The first time they tell you that the world’s turning and you just can’t quite believe it ’cause everything looks like it’s standing still…. I can feel it. The turn of the Earth. The ground beneath our feet is spinning at 1,000 miles an hour and the entire planet is hurtling around the sun at 67,000 miles an hour, and I can feel it. We’re falling through space, you and me, clinging to the skin of this tiny little world, and if we let go….
If I close my eyes to all this and shout “goddiddit” do I get a prize from Mr “Banana” Comfort?
Naah, I think I’ll stick to being gobsmacked by the awesomeness of this universe we live in…
You made me remember this, from Far from the Madding Crowd, by Thomas Hardy
The sky was clear — remarkably clear — and the
twinkling of all the stars seemed to be but throbs of
one body, timed by a common pulse. The North Star
was directly in the wind’s eye, and since evening the
Bear had swung round it outwardly to the east, till he
was now at a right angle with the meridian. A
difference of colour in the stars — oftener read of than
seen in England — was really perceptible here. The
sovereign brilliancy of Sirius pierced the eye with a steely
glitter, the star called Capella was yellow, Aldebaran and
Betelgueux shone with a fiery red.
To persons standing alone on a hill during a clear
midnight such as this, the roll of the world eastward is
almost a palpable movement. The sensation may be
caused by the panoramic glide of the stars past earthly
objects, which is perceptible in a few minutes of still-
ness, or by the better outlook upon space that a hill
affords, or by the wind, or by the solitude; but whatever
be its origin, the impression of riding along is vivid and
abiding. The poetry of motion is a phrase much in
use, and to enjoy the epic form of that gratification it
is necessary to stand on a hill at a small hour of the
night, and, having first expanded with a sense of differ-
ence from the mass of civilised mankind, who are
dreamwrapt and disregardful of all such proceedings at
this time, long and quietly watch your stately progress
through the stars. After such a nocturnal reconnoitre
it is hard to get back to earth, and to believe that the
consciousness of such majestic speeding is derived from
a tiny human frame.
I cannot think of a better blog to be mentioned in. I have studied and read about those things you posted here since I was a very young child. Thank you for cheering up an old man.
If I close my eyes to all this and shout “goddiddit” do I get a prize from Mr “Banana” Comfort?
Naah, I think I’ll stick to being gobsmacked by the awesomeness of this universe we live in…
Thank you. You made me remember this.
You made me remember this, from Far from the Madding Crowd, by Thomas Hardy
I cannot think of a better blog to be mentioned in. I have studied and read about those things you posted here since I was a very young child. Thank you for cheering up an old man.