Billions and billions and billions....
At the suggestion of J. A. Fludd, I've been checking out the History Channel's series The Universe. I'm such a sucker for popular science.... I've got Cosmos on DVD, and I occasionally really, really miss Carl Sagan.
This series is sort of the 21st century analog to Cosmos, but it's... different. It has a lot less of the Majesty of the Universe that Cosmos had, and lacks a the reverence that Sagan had for the individuals who brought modern science to where it was. It has a lot of the MTV-esque quick cuts, and computer graphics that are okay, on occasion. Plus, it has a serious tendency towards fear-mongering. The first episode, on the Sun, spent most of the time explaining all the ways in which the sun could destroy us at a whim. The episode on "Spaceship Earth" took great pains to detail all the ways the universe was trying to destroy us (including my new favorite - the gamma ray burst) all the way up to the eventual heat death of the universe. Hell, even the Andromeda Galaxy got the label of "our greatest adversary" due to its impending (read: in several hundred million years) collision with the Milky Way - whose core, they say, contains a "Beast with a ravenous appetite...."
FOX News style sheet aside, though, it's really interesting. My most recurrent thought is, "Gods, I hope I live to see the day life is found off Earth...." Europa, Mars, Titan, Enceladus.... I think I may actually weep. It also gives me a great reason to wish for immortality - I want to know how it all works, and we learn more every day. I hate to think that I may die before knowing why Saturn has a giant hexagon at the north pole and a hurricane at the south....
This series is sort of the 21st century analog to Cosmos, but it's... different. It has a lot less of the Majesty of the Universe that Cosmos had, and lacks a the reverence that Sagan had for the individuals who brought modern science to where it was. It has a lot of the MTV-esque quick cuts, and computer graphics that are okay, on occasion. Plus, it has a serious tendency towards fear-mongering. The first episode, on the Sun, spent most of the time explaining all the ways in which the sun could destroy us at a whim. The episode on "Spaceship Earth" took great pains to detail all the ways the universe was trying to destroy us (including my new favorite - the gamma ray burst) all the way up to the eventual heat death of the universe. Hell, even the Andromeda Galaxy got the label of "our greatest adversary" due to its impending (read: in several hundred million years) collision with the Milky Way - whose core, they say, contains a "Beast with a ravenous appetite...."
FOX News style sheet aside, though, it's really interesting. My most recurrent thought is, "Gods, I hope I live to see the day life is found off Earth...." Europa, Mars, Titan, Enceladus.... I think I may actually weep. It also gives me a great reason to wish for immortality - I want to know how it all works, and we learn more every day. I hate to think that I may die before knowing why Saturn has a giant hexagon at the north pole and a hurricane at the south....