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Cassandra Smiling
Posted in For Your Consideration
On a cold day in April, 2017 scientists gathered in Washington DC and cities around the world for the March for Science. Their message was a single powerful idea. Truth is not a political expediency. Reality cannot be ignored. In the year that has followed the vital importance of that message has only grown.
This article originally appeared in my Astronomy Magazine column, For Your Consideration.
EPA Rehash
Posted in Thoughts
When I look at NASA’s new Administrator, Jim Bridenstine, it is his fellow Oklahoman Scott Pruitt’s EPA that jumps to mind. As politically uncomfortable science is pushed aside, NASA’s history of nonpartisanship appears headed for an abrupt end. Will a strongly partisan NASA have a target on its back?
The Hermeneutics of Bunk
Posted in For Your Consideration
Some years ago, NYU physicist Alan Sokal wondered whether anti-science postmodernists could recognize politically-correct-sounding nonsense even if he rubbed their noses in it. The unwitting subjects of the Sokal Hoax jumped at the bait.
This article originally appeared in my Astronomy Magazine column, For Your Consideration.
A Dunning-Kruger Universe
Posted in For Your Consideration
Some people are sure they know more than the experts, but it can take a lot of knowledge to realize just how wrong an idea is.
This article originally appeared in my Astronomy Magazine column, For Your Consideration.
Our Need to Know
The human brain craves the sensation of knowing like a drug addict craves the next fix. If real knowledge is uncomfortable or not at hand, we are quite content to just make something up, then convince ourselves it’s real. In a world where knowledge matters, that’s dangerous.
A Saguaro’s universe
Posted in For Your Consideration
The iconic saguaro cactus gives the desert an otherwordly beauty. That beauty does not exist in isolation. It embodies the fascinating and awe-inspiring processes that have shaped the universe, going all the way back to the Big Bang itself.
This article originally appeared in my Astronomy Magazine column, For Your Consideration.
Oklahoma Skies
Posted in For Your Consideration
Looking at room full of amateur astronomers, gathered for the Okie-Tex Star Party under the spectacularly dark skies of the Oklahoma Panhandle, I am reminded of my own roots and those who helped me discover the universe.
This article originally appeared in my Astronomy Magazine column, For Your Consideration.
Fight-or-Flight
Posted in Coaching
A strong fight-or-flight reaction served our evolutionary ancestors well. If the leopard catches you, that’s it! But today a visceral response to a not-so-mortal threat seldom improves things. If you want to get a handle on those intense, counterproductive bouts of emotion, start by understanding where fight-or-flight came from in the first place.
In a Shark’s Eye
Posted in For Your Consideration
Alone, 100 feet underwater, with a shark in its element, I am overwhelmed by a mixture of awe, beauty, joy, and intellectual wonder at the world that brings us together. In that moment, I experience just what science is all about.
This article originally appeared in my Astronomy Magazine column, For Your Consideration.
The Quandry of Unpredictability
Posted in For Your Consideration
Chaos is a sticky wicket for science. There are things a correct theory like climate change cannot predict, but there are a lot of things that it can. It’s important to understand which is which.
This article originally appeared in my Astronomy Magazine column, For Your Consideration.
Why I March for Science
Posted in Thoughts
On Earth Day, April 22, 2017, people around the nation will March for Science. It seems strange to need to march in support of the idea that pronouncements from politicians cannot change the nature of reality, or that evidence matters when making decisions. But such are the peculiar times in which we live.Waiting for Skynet
Posted in For Your Consideration
For biological organisms, interstellar travel is hopelessly difficult, and probably pointless. For sentient machines, however, home is the environment you were built for.
This article originally appeared in my Astronomy Magazine column, For Your Consideration.
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On a cold day in April, 2017 scientists gathered in Washington DC and cities around the world for the March for Science. Their message was a single powerful idea. Truth is not a political expediency. Reality cannot be ignored. In the year that has followed the vital importance of that message has only grown.
This article originally appeared in my Astronomy Magazine column, For Your Consideration.
When I look at NASA’s new Administrator, Jim Bridenstine, it is his fellow Oklahoman Scott Pruitt’s EPA that jumps to mind. As politically uncomfortable science is pushed aside, NASA’s history of nonpartisanship appears headed for an abrupt end. Will a strongly partisan NASA have a target on its back?
Some years ago, NYU physicist Alan Sokal wondered whether anti-science postmodernists could recognize politically-correct-sounding nonsense even if he rubbed their noses in it. The unwitting subjects of the Sokal Hoax jumped at the bait.
This article originally appeared in my Astronomy Magazine column, For Your Consideration.
Some people are sure they know more than the experts, but it can take a lot of knowledge to realize just how wrong an idea is.
This article originally appeared in my Astronomy Magazine column, For Your Consideration.
The human brain craves the sensation of knowing like a drug addict craves the next fix. If real knowledge is uncomfortable or not at hand, we are quite content to just make something up, then convince ourselves it’s real. In a world where knowledge matters, that’s dangerous.
The iconic saguaro cactus gives the desert an otherwordly beauty. That beauty does not exist in isolation. It embodies the fascinating and awe-inspiring processes that have shaped the universe, going all the way back to the Big Bang itself.
This article originally appeared in my Astronomy Magazine column, For Your Consideration.
Looking at room full of amateur astronomers, gathered for the Okie-Tex Star Party under the spectacularly dark skies of the Oklahoma Panhandle, I am reminded of my own roots and those who helped me discover the universe.
This article originally appeared in my Astronomy Magazine column, For Your Consideration.
A strong fight-or-flight reaction served our evolutionary ancestors well. If the leopard catches you, that’s it! But today a visceral response to a not-so-mortal threat seldom improves things. If you want to get a handle on those intense, counterproductive bouts of emotion, start by understanding where fight-or-flight came from in the first place.
Alone, 100 feet underwater, with a shark in its element, I am overwhelmed by a mixture of awe, beauty, joy, and intellectual wonder at the world that brings us together. In that moment, I experience just what science is all about.
This article originally appeared in my Astronomy Magazine column, For Your Consideration.
Chaos is a sticky wicket for science. There are things a correct theory like climate change cannot predict, but there are a lot of things that it can. It’s important to understand which is which.
This article originally appeared in my Astronomy Magazine column, For Your Consideration.
On Earth Day, April 22, 2017, people around the nation will March for Science. It seems strange to need to march in support of the idea that pronouncements from politicians cannot change the nature of reality, or that evidence matters when making decisions. But such are the peculiar times in which we live.For biological organisms, interstellar travel is hopelessly difficult, and probably pointless. For sentient machines, however, home is the environment you were built for.
This article originally appeared in my Astronomy Magazine column, For Your Consideration.
Over his 30 year career as an internationally known astrophysicist, Dr. Jeff Hester was a key member of the team that repaired the Hubble Space Telescope. With one foot always on the frontiers of knowledge, he has been mentor, coach, team leader, award-winning teacher, administrator and speaker, to name a few of the hats he has worn. His Hubble image, the Pillars of Creation, was chosen by Time Magazine as among the 100 most influential photographs in history.
Science, Art and Beauty
The Courage it Takes to Be Human
One of the commandments for TED speakers is “Thou shalt not trot out thy usual schtick.” There was little danger of that when I was asked to speak at a TEDx event dedicated to “Lifeblood: That Which Sustains Us.” I’m a hard scientist who helps people look at an often unforgiving reality without blinking. I seldom find myself on stage following a troupe of belly dancers!
Sustaining 101
So where to start? Webster defines “sustain” as “cause to continue or be prolonged for an extended period or without interruption.” Taking that definition in the most literal way possible, “that which sustains us” boils down to three fundamental imperatives. Thou shalt eat. Thou shalt avoid being eaten. And thou shalt reproduce. Omar Khayyam put it a bit more poetically; “A jug of wine, a loaf of bread, and thou.”
Poetry or not and all kidding aside, had our ancestors failed at these we wouldn’t be here talking about it. Of course, there were lots of other things out there doing their damnedest to “sustain” too. A lot of the competition was bigger, meaner, faster and in possession of sharper claws than were we.
How did humans climb to the top of the evolutionary ladder? Inventing beauty had a lot to do with it.
So how did we end up on top of the heap? Maybe they had bigger teeth, but we had bigger brains. While they were busy reacting to the world, we were busy understanding the world.
Beauty is serious business
Our nature is to seek out and even invent patterns in the midst of the complexity of the world. We can’t help it!
Like all animals, humans have a drive to reproduce. We have a drive to eat. But we are also driven to find pattern and meaning in what we see. That drive defines us as a species. It is the source of our power to shape the world to our own ends. It is the key to our success.
It would be nice to have a word that captures all of this; a word that sums up what we experience when we see the world not as chaos but as order. Actually we already have a word like that. We call that experience “beauty.”
A thoughtful scientist might describe the process of science as finding meaningful patterns in the world and communicating those patterns so that others can see their significance as well. Of course a thoughtful artist might describe her own calling in exactly the same way! Both the artist and the scientist seek beauty. Both scratch the same itch.
It’s not always in the eye of the beholder
Music, science, art, politics, economics, commerce; as with all that makes up our culture, each of these has its own beauty. More correctly, all of these are expressions of what someone sees as beautiful. But not all beauty is the same.
Sometimes beauty is in the eye of the beholder, as the expression says. Which is the more beautiful painting? What do you value most in life? What does success mean to you? Your answers to those questions are yours and yours alone.
But some beauty is different. Will this airplane fly? Will this product sell? How best to treat this disease? Are human’s changing the climate? The world is as the world is, and the world will do what the world will do. Your opinions don’t change the answers to these questions. If you pretend that they do you could be in for a world of hurt.
Reliable answers to questions like these don’t come from clinging blindly to what worked last year or what we want to be true. Reliable answers to questions of this sort come instead from challenging everything, then holding on only to ideas that can stand the heat. In a rapidly changing world that takes courage. There is beauty in that, too.
I hope that you enjoy the talk!
Science, Art and Beauty ^ The Courage it Takes to Be Human ©
Dr. Jeff Hester
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