Chet -
I have read your essay on the Deep Field (from "Skeptics", I believe) to nearly every astronomy class I have taught. With an image of the deep field projected in a dark room, it makes a very moving and thought provoking impression.

Thanks for reminding me of it this morning.

Dave
Dave Gill | 02.10.06 - 1:09 pm | #

The deep field photos are my favorites.
brome grass | 02.10.06 - 1:39 pm | #

My estimate (based on secondary sources) suggests approximately 5 sextillion (5,000,000,000,000,000,000,000) stars in our known universe. That's a big number, even allowing for a slight margin of error.
Peter
Peter Rogatz | 02.10.06 - 2:15 pm | #

Near the other end of the spectrum, it's almost comforting to feel so minuscule -- my actions, good and bad, seem to matter less. (Although the 'other end of the spectrum' may be farther away than it seems to this naked eye!)
Theresa | 02.10.06 - 4:15 pm | #

Hi all,

I am a longtime lurker and sometimes poster, and I just came across this group while reading a Richard Dawkins article in Wired: www.the-brights.net

It occured to me that many of the readers of this blog might be Brights, too!
shhiggins | 02.10.06 - 5:44 pm | #

“Anyone who doesn't take this information on board when asking the BIG questions -- Who am I? Where did I come from? Why am I here? -- is missing something important.” Bingo!!! The man has Bingo!!!

It is written that faith can move a mountain. For me, knowledge, which leads to understanding, can move the mountain.

After keying in the word “move,” in the line above, I suddenly see Galileo, on his knees, being judged and condemned by the self-ordained powers and self-proclaimed “keepers of the wisdom and the Truth.” And then, allegedly, Galileo quietly mutters to himself, “…and yet it MOVES.” I have come to believe that it does in fact move. But it isn’t Galileo’s earth or the prophet’s mountain that moves. Rather, it is my mind that has moved.

That scene is, for me, a watershed moment in science and history that exemplifies, and helps solidify in my mind, the divide between true and false, right and wrong, knowledge and ignorance. And maybe even science and faith. I just wish it wasn’t such a big divide.

Big Questions. Big Topics. And one Big Photograph.
paul | 02.11.06 - 11:04 am | #

Big YES to all of that, Paul. Especially your Galileo paragraph--"it is my mind that has moved." That's a big Zen truth (small 't').
Theresa | 02.11.06 - 5:27 pm | #