Starting Today: Beautiful Science

October 14, 2011

Beautiful Science

The sun was back out again this morning, though the balmy 80 degree temperatures of indian summer we'd been enjoying for the past week have gone...perhaps for good.

To tell you the truth, I'm totally ok with that. My little studio apartment retains heat really well...uncomfortably well in the summer, and even a little beyond what I'd like in the winter when my radiator gets going at full throttle. I find that I'm actually looking forward to the briskness of late fall...wearing sweaters, drinking hot tea, and cuddling up underneath my covers at bedtime. And as for the brutal chill of Chicago winter...bring it on! (I can't believe I just said that!)

And if you'd like an extra portion of eye candy this morning check out the Winners Gallery of Northwestern's 2011 scientific images contest. Appreciable on an "Art-for-Art's-sake" level, these beautiful images are also valuable components of research projects currently taking place at NU. My personal favorites are the clustered bipyramids of gold nanoparticles and the wispy film of carbon nanotubes...what are yours?

1 comment:

Iffer MitchellOctober 14, 2011 at 9:42 AM
The images in the contest were all fun and fascinating. I liked the thought that someday there will be a battery charger in my pants. ; ) The bipyramids were lovely, too.
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Great Books I've Recently Read

If you are looking for an "astronomical" read, Tyler Nordgren's "Stars Above, Earth Below" Is a great place to start. Nordgren explores a wide array of astronomical subjects by relating them to the processes, landscapes, history, culture, and dark skies that are so beautifully on display in our National Parks: solar system volcanism alongside Yellowstone National Park; Cosmology, Deep Time, and Deep Space alongside the Grand Canyon; Climate Change and the "Goldilocks Zone" alongside Glacier National Park; the life cycles of stars, and archeoastronomy alongside Chaco Canyon...and many more. The book is loaded with beautiful images and illustrations, and Nordgren's conversational storytelling makes complex ideas both accessible and memorable. The ideas in this book have enriched my own experience of observing, and I recommend it to others with two big thumbs up!

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A beautifully written book that illuminates one of the most quietly pressing issues of our time: the slow advancement of light pollution into our night sky. True darkness, and the natural light it permits, has been a source of inspiration for creative thinkers throughout history. It is crucial to our physical and mental health, personal safety, and continuing connection to the world around us. Its gradual disappearance behind a fog of orange skyglow is a tragedy that many around the world are working hard to prevent. Provocative, subtle, practical, and poetic, "The End of Night" reminds us that we need not fear the dark, but should instead embrace and protect its wonders so that future generations will still know first-hand the arc of the Milky Way sweeping across a deep sky.

I love and hate anthologies. The great thing about them is I come away having met a new bunch of inspiring writers. The unfortunate thing is that I know I'll never get to everything on my growing list of "must read" books. This collection is magnificent, with selections both poetic and practical, sobering and celebratory. And Lyon's introductory analysis of America's particular contribution to the oft overlooked and sometimes maligned genre of nature writing provides an illuminating perspective on the art, while also tying it to society's evolving perspective on nature and humanity's role within it. A few of my favorite features included selections by Barry Lopez, John Haines, Edward Hoagland, Rachel Carson, and Henry Beston.

A collection of essays and poetry by prominent western writers that illuminates the role of wilderness--and in this case, most specifically Utah wilderness--in sustaining an ethic of freedom, creativity, aspiration, and soulful bounty: "as the control plots against which we can measure the ravages of Progress." Its distribution in 1996 among members of congress and other top political figures, helped secure the creation of the Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument. The selections are varied and heartfelt. They approach the issues of wilderness from unexpected perspectives, and invite the reader into landscapes of mythic dimension. "Carry water and use your wits."

Really great science writing often makes me wish I could go back to school and study whatever field it illuminates. This book makes me want to be a geologist or paleontologist: one of those that dig the truths of history from the farthest corners of the Earth, rejoice over the discovery of a tiny fragment of tooth or bone, and then connect that shard through the eons of time to the realities of our lives in the present moment...an age where the effects of human ideas control the path of natural selection and may now trump basic fertility as the driving force of evolution on our planet.

Starting Today

October 14, 2011

Beautiful Science

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Black River Astronomical Society

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