In an online interview, Yann Martel, the author of “Life of Pi,” said, “the subtext of the book can be summarized in three lines: 1: Life is a story, 2. You can choose the story, 3. A story with God is the better story." And to another question, he answered, "God is hard to believe, ask any believer. Life is hard to believe, ask any scientist. What is your problem with hard to believe?”
Martel’s thoughts, my readings on how skill at story telling provided a likely evolutionary advantage to early homo sapiens, plus a sermon last year by Ken Read-Brown, minister of my UU church on the Great Story, the scientific story of life, together encouraged me to put together for a summer service at the church a condensed version of this story (in what may be a familiar format to those who have read Genesis): (more…)
The evolution of life
Matt Damon in "The Martian"
Pluto's surface as seen by New Horizons
SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket
Size comprison of the Earth, the moon, and Pluto (lower left)
Aerial view of Spaceship Two crash in Mohave Desert
Close-up of nucleus of comet 67P taken by ESA spacecraft Rosetta
Wernher Von Braun & engines of Saturn V
Steven Swanson (left) and Russian colleagues
Yutu, Chinese rover, on the moon
Comet ISON and its green tail
Archives
International Space Station, where NASA will continue to support the astronauts during the shutdown
Artist's version of Mars One colony (Bryan Versteeg)
Kepler Space Telescope (artist's version)
Pluto - the Former Ninth Planet
Virgin Galactic space plane over New Mexico's Spaceport America
Saturn - Lord of the Rings
Arizona's Meteor Crater
Radar view of the surface of Venus as seen by Magellan orbiter
Use of Terra, a spin-off of CheMin (instrument on Curiosity), in King Tut's tomb
Streambed found on Mars by Curiosity (compared to dry streambed on Earth)
Self-portrait of the rover Curiosity on Mars.
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SPACE SHORTS |
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