Yesterday, we had a little bit of snow fall in my neck of the woods. What was cool was how the conditions must have been just perfect so that what you saw falling was actually "little six sided snowflakes." I mean, it was like a scene from a Christmas special, with flakes often as big as 3mm in diameter. Seriously, it was magical almost, and my kids and I spent a good chunk of time just looking at them as they rested on our clothes, our hair, or on the terrain around us.
I tried to take photos, but my camera is not well suited for macro work. Still, I think this picture gives the general sense of how wonderful it was:
Anyway, I just wanted to write a little something about how seeing these little snowflakes was quite inspirational - made me think about how great science is, especially since embedded in this little thing of beauty is the workings of some marvelous chemistry - six sided molecular interactions between those water molecules.
It also reminded me of another time when I got that same sense of wonder. That is when I saw a planet for the first time ever with my little rickety telescope. Saturn might of looked tiny that evening, but I've never forgotten that feeling of awe when I saw those rings. It was awesome.
Oh, and the time I first saw the Blue Whale in London's Natural History Museum.
In any event, I'm guessing this feeling we get from instances like these, is another one of those uniquely human things. And if you're reading this (and have a few minutes to spare), it would be great to share any stories you had - you know, where you saw something science-y and just kind of went "Oh wow..."
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Yeah, it must be very wonderful having /green leaves/ around. grumph grumph grumph from the second-coldest place on the planet.
Seriously, though, I've had that feeling when I garden: I look at my plants and the dirt and the sun (not directly) and think about how photosynthesis works and what dirt and plants and people are made of, and it feels pretty cool.
That on on the right might be the largest, and most perfect, snowflake I have ever seen. Cool photo.
My "wow, science!" moments (I'm not a science expert, so sorry if any of this is inaccurate):
-The time in chemistry class when we saw iodine sublimate into purple smoke.
-In a science museum, there was a huge glass column full of rice and a sign said that, if each grain of rice represented a galaxy, the whole tube was the visible universe (or something like that; the perspective was humbling and mind-boggling).
-I hardly ever weed my plants because every little weed looks so wonderfully alive.
- Glimpse at pondwater through a microscope, when I was 9. The feeling never left me since ^_^
- Watching microtubules grow in real time in vivo! Same for seeing marked Golgi bodies for the first time, and realising they're actually -dynamic-! (in plants) Live cell imaging never gets old!
- Pretty much stopping to think about anything, in nature or even in culture. How it got here, how it interacts with things, how it works. Realising that the boring-looking dirt under your feet contains thousands of fungal networks hooking up the trees of the forest, and perhaps millions of different kinds of microbial life, from giant 'walking' hypotrich ciliates (simply adorable to look at!) to swarms of amoebae (and slime moulds!) to the vastness of prokaryotic diversity we have yet to even catch a glimpse of.
We really don't know anything about the world around us. So any tiny thing we have managed to sort of characterise up to now is really quite amazing!
Now if only the feeling could also apply to finals... =( amazing how courses can suck out the very wonder out of science. Really sad, actually, I don't think that's necessary to teach it. In fact, I don't see how science is tolerable without wonder!
-Psi-
wait, don't you mean nature?
nature is wonderful? beautiful? elegant? majestic? awe-inspiring?
it's all nature.
the non-human is what we're talking about here, and i agree, it's indeed wonderful. filled with wonder.
Intransigentia:
I'll give you the benefit of the doubt, but its dangerous including the soil in with the sun and your plants. You should actually take a deep breath, exhale, and marvel at your breath, the sun, and your plants.
Even though I knew about photosynthesis and the carbon cycle since I was young. When I went to college and took Intro to Biology I marveled at the beautiful elegance of van Helmont's experiments that first suggested that the mass of plants does not come from the earth. I knew that plants got their energy from CO2 and the sun, but it didn't click that plants used the fixed carbons in glucose for nearly everything else in their cells...and its something that I'm afraid is still misunderstood by many.
From Wikipedia's Photosynthesis article:
Jan van Helmont began the research of the process in the mid-1600s when he carefully measured the mass of the soil used by a plant and the mass of the plant as it grew. After noticing that the soil mass changed very little, he hypothesized that the mass of the growing plant must come from the water, the only substance he added to the potted plant. His hypothesis was partially accurateâmuch of the gained mass also comes from carbon dioxide as well as water. However, this was a signaling point to the idea that the bulk of a plant's biomass comes from the inputs of photosynthesis, not the soil itself.
-In grade 6 when I saw a rotifer under a microscope for the first time.
-Anytime I pass an old tree that has broken the sidewalk.
-The first time I held a trilobite fossil in my hand and marvelled that this little dead creature had no idea that hundreds of millions of years later someone would be treasuring it. And then thinking about myself as only a midpoint.
--when I am far from home-- on the other side of the world-- and look at the sky and think of the same clouds perhaps later cruising over my home; looking at the trees and thinking they are growing 'up', and not parallel to the ones at home, but that they have the same essential treeness...and I think, what a wonderful world, that transcends the quotidian crap that I spend too much energy and thought on. Even now, any bulbs that have not gone into squirrel's tummies, are secretly growing roots in preparation for a flagrant display of sexuality in a few months-- but kind of like they have boob jobs, since they have been bred an manipulated for a long time to be what they presently are. And so on. But I am at work, so back to quotindianizing.
Here's another fascinating 6-sided-ness: Saturns Hexagon
Mike forgot to add the URL, but a quick google search turns up this at wikipedia.
The first time I saw individual atoms using a mass spec. They reminded me of little eggs. It was a life changing experience for me.
Watching a litter of cloned, transgenic pigs be born. It was quite an unbelievable amalgamation of nature AND incredible science.
You mean nature is wonderful. Science is an investigative tool. Make the distinction.
I'm inclined to think that both are wonderful. Distinction made or not.
SCIENCE CAN(???)/SHOULD(!!!), (NOT IS!!!) BE WONDERFUL!!!
BUT SUCH PROMISE IS VERY SADLY SIMPLY DECIDEDLY NOT FULFILLED WHEN ONE ACTUALLY D O E S SCIENCE!!!
WHY???
"JARGONIAL-OBFUSCATION"(AKA "LOTSA FANCY SHMANCY LINGO") DESIGNED TO "KEEP OUT THE OUTSIDERS WITH THEIR OUTSIDER(AND PARENTHETICALYL NOT AS GOOD AS 'OURS', THE IN CROWD)IDEAS"(QUOTING JOHN BRADSHAW'S IN-FAMOUS EXAMPLE!!(SE REFERENCE BELOW).
I.E. SCIENCE'S-PRACTICE OF RAMPANT HUMAN SOCIOLOGICAL-DYSFUNCTIONALITY!!!
ITS ACTUAL PRACTICE IS RIFE WITH RAMPANT "BUZZWORDISM, BANDWAGONISM AND SLOGANEERING FOR: FUN, PROFIT, SURVIVAL AND EGO", I.E. MEDIA-HYPE P.R. SPIN-DOCTORING "SHOW-BIZ", MONKEY BUSINESS AS USUAL, "GAMES PEOPLE PLAY", IN THE VERNACULAR OF "THE GREAT ONE", JACKIE GLEASON(OF "THE HONEYMOONERS" FAME), "BUSH-WAA-..-AAAH"(DECIDEDLY NOT MEANING NOR INTENDING TO MEAN MIDDLE CLASS BURGEOUIS, BUT PLAIN B.S.!!! IT HAS DEGENERATED INTO PURE POSTURING ONLY!!!
(REFERENCES: LETTER/ESSAY: "BUZZWORDISM, BANDWAGONISM AND SLOGANEERING FOR: FUN, PROFIT, SURVIVAL AND EGO", PHYSICS TODAY MAGAZINE(~1970s); GOOGLE < "EDWARD SIEGEL" ETHICS >, OR < "EDWARD SIEGEL" SHETHICS >; SEEK: EDWARD SIEGEL, AMERICAN PHYSICAL SOCIETY (WWW.APS.ORG) MARCH MEETINGS: NEW ORLEANS(2009); PORTLAND(2010); EDWARD SIEGEL, AMERICAN PHYSICAL SOCIETY (WWW.APS.ORG) CALIFORNIA-SECTION NOBEL-PRIZE MEETING, LAWRENCE BERKELEY LABORATORY(2007) ; GOOGLE BRIAN MARTIN; JOHN BRADSHAW BOOK: "HEALING THE SHAME THAT BINDS YOU", HAZELDEN(~1980s);...)
Dr. Siegel - nice...um, have some time to kill?
my aha was after watching a variety of clips of Carl Sagan's "Cosmos" and then standing on the beach watching a sunset. realizing distinctly that I was gazing over the horizon, off in to space, across 93 million miles and into a star that is perfectly suited (or perhaps, least harmfully suited) to encourage life. all the while noticing remnant heat energy in the sand from electrons traveling that distance. big stuff, love it
Junior year, undergrad. Nuclear engineering class. Getting to run the TRIGA reactor on campus and bring it to criticality. Walking around the reactor pool and getting to look down in, actually look! at the reactor core. The pretty, pretty blue light of Cerenkov radiation. Sigh. Nuclear reactions are soooooo dreamy!