It was a frigidly cold January night
when I joined the local astronomy club in Sharon, MA for a night of stargazing
on the Moose Hill property, the highest and clearest point in town. We had formed a small circle in the parking
lot, each of us tending to our own telescope, ranging from my small Celestron
StarSeeker to the six foot tall Dobsonian which we all hoped to take a peek
through before the night was over. With
few visible objects in the night sky and a cloud front rolling in, most of us
settled on training our scopes on the Pleiades, a magnificent cluster of blue
supergiant stars visible by the naked eye and even more brilliant through a
magnified lens. As the evening wore on,
though, even the shimmering scene of blazing stars four hundred lightyears away
lost its vigor, and little by little people began contemplating calling it a
night.
It was around that time that
suddenly, without warning, the sky lit up as if a huge overhead neon light had
been switched on. Hot white brightness
filled the sky, and our eyes were immediately drawn upward to see something
unexpected: a burning meteor flying through the atmosphere. As we all silently gazed at this astronomical
rarity, time seemed to slow down, seconds feeling like minutes, or more. Eventually the meteor passed, disappearing far
into the distance and eventually behind the tree line, never to be seen again,
but undoubtedly to be remembered by all there that evening for years to come.
I first saw a shooting star during my
freshman year of high school when I stayed up late to watch a meteor shower. But that night atop Moose Hill was the first
time I ever witnessed such a miraculous fireball streaking through the sky, and
if I never see another one I will still count myself lucky for ever
experiencing such a site. It is for
reasons like this that I am such a passionate fan of science, for one never
knows what sort of wonders are waiting to be discovered, be it a group of
amateur astronomers lucky enough to see a shooting star in all its glory, or a
team of physicists discovering new particles or new planets and enriching our
vision of the universe on its smallest and grandest of scales. No matter how much we think we know about it,
the universe, simply put, is the great unknown, and science is our doorway into
that vast realm.
My primary focus studying science has
always been physics, yet even within that discipline my interests have always
been quite varied, ranging from astronomy to particles to the forces of nature. I am intrigued and impressed by how physics
concepts are utilized by so many other of branches of science that, as far as I
am concerned, it might as well be considered the foundation of all
sciences. However, as much as physics
has explained over the past several centuries – from gravity and the motion of
the planets to quantum mechanics, and so much more – I remain fascinated by the
many questions left unanswered, the many mysteries left to be solved, and the
many avenues yet to be explored.
Staring up into a starlit sky I
cannot help but feel immensely small in comparison to the entirety of
existence. And yet this scene brings me
great comfort. Each star in itself is a
roiling display of the complexities of physics at work, and it is miraculous to
think that I can be connected to these points of space, separated by hundreds or
even thousands of lightyears by no more than the tiny stream of photons passing
through my eye. Simply trying to
comprehend the vastness of space, or the hugeness of such creations as stars,
nebulas, and galaxies, is daunting, but buried within all the scientific measurements
and observation is an ethereal beauty, a cosmic painting with countless details
for us to appreciate and revere. In
comparison to the universe, I know I am tiny, but I do not feel
insignificant. Rather, I feel like a
small yet integral part of a much larger, far more interesting structure, and I
am blessed to be allowed to glimpse even a fraction of the eternity it has to
offer.
And if the vastness of space is not
enough to excite me, the notion that I am made from the tiniest of building
blocks, the same atoms which permeate the air and give foundation to the ground
below me, that give birth to stars and encode the DNA of my fellow life forms, brings
endless wonder to my life. I am amazed
to think that the core of my being is a thriving metropolis of particle
interactions, and it tests the limits of my comprehension to imagine the
quantum collisions that have taken place just to produce my physical self. The microscopic world is a universe beyond
sight, teaming with mysteries which defy logic but nevertheless grant us the
very foundation of our reality. To think
that with each touch, each breath, I am trading my atoms with the environment
around me, or that the essential who
in who I am exists somewhere between the bonds of molecules making up my brain,
might make my life suddenly seem rather fragile, even insignificant. However, as far as I can see, it is a miracle
how mere balls of energy verging on nonexistence can come together to shape the
world, including us, and I choose to celebrate how I owe my very being to the
laws of physics in action.
To me, science is far more than
mathematical equations and measurements.
It’s a beautiful expression of reality that allows us to not only see
but also ponder, reflect, and come to sense with the very essence of what makes
the universe, and everything inside of it, the way it is. That is why I have chosen to be a science
writer, in order to share this passion with as wide an audience as possible. Although my true interest remains with
physics, I have contemplated science from many angles, from biology to
chemistry to geology, and more, and though I cannot count myself an expert in
any one field, I have discovered within myself a yearning desire to learn, to better
myself through knowledge, and above all else to make that knowledge available
to others. As a journalist, my goal is
to take the opportunity to interview notable scientists about the many facets
of scientific research and discovery as possible, and in that way become as
much a student as a writer. The writing
I produce, I can only hope, will not only interest readers but also encourage
them to pursue their own explorations in any of the numerous fields science has
to offer (if they have not done so already), and by doing so contribute to the
vast wealth of knowledge which is the scientific realm. My goal, in the meantime, is to keep the
conversation going. I hope people like
what I have to say.
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