Inspiration for a Natural World-View
Videos
The Rings of Earth
Dec 11th
Have you ever wondered what the rings of Saturn would look like if you were standing on it’s surface? Well that’s just silly, you can’t stand on Saturn because it’s made of gas. But you can stand on the earth and imagine what it rings would look like.
In this video, we see what rings would look like from the surface of earth. This was created by a guy named Roy Prol, and he didn’t just slap rings in the background of images from around the world. He actually calculated how the rings would look if you were standing in a particular spot on our globe. He also uses a 3D rendering of the earth to help put it in perspective.
This is a cool concept, and it’s creator even takes into account what the rings would look like at night, considering they would still reflect light. Blogger Emily Lakdawalla, over at the planetary society, points out that it would be cool to see how the rings appeared in the winter hemisphere; the rings would eclipse the sun, showing large black swoops through a starry sky.
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Interview: John Boswell – Symphony of Science
Dec 2nd
I rarely bring up the topic of science in casual conversation. I’m paralyzed by my inability to deliver the awe-inspiring realizations that seem to come so fluently from scientists like Carl Sagan and Neil deGrasse Tyson. It seems the simplest explanations can be the most elegant. I’m not a scientist, but when I read a book like Pale Blue Dot, there are some things I do share with the author, his enthusiasm and excitement as he takes me on a expedition beyond our galaxy. But how do we convey this invigoration to others who are not rushing out to pick up a copy Cosmos?
John Boswell
John Boswell, Composer of the growing music and video series Symphony of Science, may have figured it out. Each composition ignites the emotion many of us felt when we were first awakened to the vastness of our universe. Boswell uses words spoken from the mouths of our most influential scientists, and transforms them into melodic lyrics set to addicting musical arrangements. In this interview I asked Boswell about his inspiration and the future of the project.
Myles: Who inspired you to take an interest in science?
JB: Carl Sagan, without a doubt, is largely responsible for my continued fascination with science. I discovered him at a time when I was deeply interested in philosophical questions about the universe, reality, and all that good stuff. In high school I wasn’t initially interested in science, mainly because the teachers were too regimented and dry; the exception was my junior year biology teacher introducing me to David Attenborough. After taking a number of science and philosophy electives in college I was entranced… particularly by my astronomy class, and that led me to finding Carl Sagan’s Cosmos my sophomore year, which I immediately fell in love with.
Myles: What is it about Sagan that makes him captivating?
JB: He doesn’t just give you the facts as revealed by the scientific method, he talks about them in a personal and meaningful way that seems to reach people on a deeper level than most other scientists.
Myles: Astronomy is the driving force behind your first three songs. Why do you find this particular science fascinating?
JB: I find all fields of science fascinating, they give us a new perspective on ourselves. But astronomy is particularly awe-inspiring to me because it does so on the grandest scale, and provides an endless amount of food for thought. I was into space as a kid, but I heavily rekindled that interest once I was old enough to appreciate the size, age and scope of the cosmos on a new level.
Myles: What is your creative process and what kind of technology goes into it?
JB: The instrumentals for the songs are composed in Reason 4.0, which is the first step. I then start tuning speech clips using a program called Melodyne, and inserting them into the song to see if it’s a fit. I sift through a lot of videos for elegant precise quotes that are spoken with passion and clear emphasis. I throw away a lot of clips I initially tend to use, because they don’t end up sounding right. It’s mostly a guess-and-check process. Once I collect enough similarly-themed speech clips that work with the song, it’s on to the video editing, which is done entirely in Sony Vegas.
Myles: Do you collaborate with anyone on this project?
JB: I get feedback from close friends who are also musicians, but the compositions and video edits are all done myself. I have considered doing some collaboration recently, so there may be featured artists on future tracks, but nothing for certain at this point.
Myles: Have you considered making other sciences the focus in your music, such as Biology / Evolution?
JB: You are right on the money. I have focused mostly on astronomy for my first three videos, but I am looking to expand into new fields, and my next pick will be biology. There are of course many suitable scientists to use for this field but I am looking to incorporate one of my favorites, not a scientist per se but an amazing individual, David Attenborough. Of course Carl Sagan will be making an appearance as well, as he has a fair amount to say about the subject.
Myles: Your first song – A Glorious Dawn – has been released on a special 7” vinyl by Jack White’s record company Third Man Records. What do you see for Symphony of Science going into the future?
JB: I hope to put out a series of at least 10 videos, but rights issues are the only [obstacles] on the horizon in terms of a CD or DVD release. I have been through the hoops for A Glorious Dawn’s single, but the later entries have used more varied footage and thus it would be much harder to clear the copyright hurdles. I am optimistic though, and hoping that nobody comes knocking at this point in the project with complaints.
At the time of this writing. John’s Videos have generated around 3.5 million views on YouTube. View the growing Symphony of Science project at www.SymphonyOfScience.com
Seeing is seeing.
Dec 1st
See if you can figure out how this is done (see below the video for answer). It’s not a camera trick and it’s not lighting.
If the diamonds were all the same color, then you shouldn’t see shapes at all – it would just be one solid color on the piece of paper. Yet we see diamond shapes. So how is it that they are proven to be the same color when compared to each other? The reason is, the diamonds are the same, but they are not solid colors. They are all the same gradated shade of grey; the top of each diamond is slightly lighter than it’s bottom. You can see this if you put a pencil across the center of a row of diamonds. We see the diamond shape because the top (lighter) shade of each diamond is meeting the bottom (darker) shade of one above it.
Debate Video
Nov 30th
The following video is a great debate staring Christopher Hitchens, Sam Harris and Daniel Dennett VS three popular(?) religionists. The video stands on it’s own, and I don’t need to add much to the dialog. Except…. Are these the best arguments religionists have? Audio is low, so crank it up.
Liftoff! STS-129
Nov 27th
Here are two great NASA liftoff films of STS-129. Watch them in full screen mode. Unfortunately the HD version of the first one was removed from YouTube, but it’s a great video none the less.
Our Place in the Cosmos (Symphony of Science)
Nov 24th
Symphony of Science has put out another awesome song. The composer Jon Boswell is getting VERY good at creating music directly from the mouths of our world’s most influential scientists. He does this using software called Auto-Tune. This software – originally intended to correct pitch in vocalists who were tired after doing hundreds of takes – has become its own “creative” force in the music industry. The first obvious use I know of incorporating the digital extreme of this effect was in the song Believe by Cher. The use of auto-tune in Believe, like it or not, was subtle and artistic. Today the auto-tune effect is used in almost every pop song created, no longer hiding it’s original purpose of making performance artists sound like they can actually carry a tune (we are well aware that most of them can not). DIGRESSION — Performance Artist: The art of performing as if you were a skilled vocalist or song writer by utilizing your one actual skill, the ability to hire a personal trainer.
ANYWAY… Our Place in the Cosmos, is an example of using Auto-Tune for creating real art (a lesser but funny example being Auto-Tune the news). There is something gratifying about science as music. Particularly when it comes straight from the most well spoken public proliferators on their subjects. This piece includes Richard Dawkins, Carl Sagan, Michio Kaku, and Robert Jastrow. I’ve noticed this about scientists; they all seem to have unique and wonderful speaking voices. I know of a person who has never read a Carl Sagan book, but has listened to all of Sagan’s audio books read by the author. I don’t need to go that far because whenever I read a book by a popular scientist, I seem to hear their voice inside my head.
Here Be Dragons
Nov 23rd
In the video Here Be Dragons, Brian Dunning of the Skeptiod Podcast (one of my Favorite podcasts) gives us an introduction to critical thinking by examining the monsters, myths, and pseudoscience of the past and present. Dunning is excellent at explaining ideas clearly – demonstrating a skill of clear thinking often developed by those who take the time to tune their critical thought process. It’s a well produced and fun video.
If you are reading this blog in a feed where you don’t see the above video, or you would like to view it in another format; the video is available for HD streaming, burnable format for DVD, and downloadable to your iPod on the Here Be Dragons website.
The Utah Fireball
Nov 22nd
Early on Wednesday Morning in Utah, some very nervous people were calling 911 after seeing this:
I can imagine how scary this must have been. That’s because I was lucky enough to have witnessed one of these megameteors myself in the summer of 2000. I was on the beach in the Outer Banks, NC late one night with some friends, and for a brief few seconds we watched the entire sky and beachfront turn from night to day.
A meteor is debris from a comet that finds it’s way into our atmosphere and burns up, creating streaks of light. Astronomers suggest that fragments of the meteor (meteorites) probably landed somewhere in the desert, and a race to find them is underway. To figure out where pieces may have landed, scientists at Utah State are watching these videos, observing the shadows cast on the ground relative to where the camera is positioned, and a little trigonometry later hope to find themselves wandering the desert looking for billion-year old meteorites among the relatively young rocks of the Utah desert. If that doesn’t sound like a good way to spend your weekend, consider that meteorites have sold for as much as $100,000.
Symphony of Science
Nov 21st
“The more likely we are to assume that the solution comes from the outside, the less likely we are to solve our problems ourselves”
- Carl Sagan
The video above is from a project called Symphony of Science by an artist named John Boswell. I think this song sets the stage and makes for a great first post for what this website is all about. Carl Sagan was my main influence for accepting a natural world and rejecting the supernatural (and he probably has been so for many people who have found their way to this site). When you have the courage to see a universe without mythical Gods, you find yourself free of mythological demons.
