Science (Bits)

Lost-ish in Space Monday

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Why, hello there Monday. And what a gray Monday you are. Which doesn’t really come as much of a surprise, given the very, very persistent clouds for last night’s lunar eclipse.

Yes, I trekked out with my tripod and camera, only to have the clouds blow in for the main event.  Still, I got a glimpse of the bright red moon before the clouds swallowed it again.

And normally this is where I’d share one of my pictures, or a couple of my pictures, but in all honesty, I don’t love them that much. And I have the tiniest, tiniest suspicion there are better, sharper, bigger, more detailed pictures to be had, given the number of observatories with front-celestial seats and slightly stronger equipment than mine.

But like so many things, the viewing itself was enough to spark its own red light of creativity. You cannot watch something like that — even obscured by clouds for the most part — and not think about the workings of the vast, vast universe. It’s a simple idea, really, that our planet throws a shadow on our moon, but when you really consider what that means, that we are spinning our way through space with our life dependent upon an enormous ball of gas, it’s pretty remarkable that we are here at all to see our chunk of space rock turn red.

And now NASA has announced that there is flowing water on Mars. Aside from the very wise warning from the prophet known as “Doctor Who” not to drink it, let’s take a second to appreciate the infinite things we have yet to learn about this expanse of space we call home.

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Who Needs Tomorrow? The Future is Today

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We are, without doubt, living in the future. Huge portions of our lives take place somewhere that doesn’t even exist, not in the physical sense, anyway. In our pockets and purses, we carry the kind of computing power that once couldn’t possibly be achieved by full rooms of machines, whirring away as hard as they could. We have a probe gathering data on the surface of another planet.

Another planet.

And here’s the strange thing, when you think about it: there is yet still more future to come. Technology evolves, so fast sometimes it feels as though it’s spinning ever outward toward things of which, from here, we can’t possibly conceive. Our culture, a much more slow-moving, plodding beast, struggles to keep up with it.

There times where I find myself remarking, often to myself, that I love living in the future. I love the internet and the universe it offers. I love easy information, once the treasure in a hunt through card catalogs and careful paging through indices, now in front of me at any time a question strikes my fancy.

It’s ironic, because I watch nearly every period drama that comes my way, studying the details, the nuances, the flavor and cadence of life in another era. Flounces and corsets and fringed dresses and circle skirts, whatever decade, whatever century, I watch them.

But not with any sense of nostalgia. Not with any longing for a time I’d be constantly be battling for breath against the crush of whale bones. Not for a time when transportation came with four legs and I’d be grateful for it.

It’s almost with a sense of relief, a sense of knowing how it could have been, and feeling lucky I live now, when every day confirms the future is now.

Check out  Her Cousin Much Removed,  The Great Paradox and the Innies and Outies of Time Management and Aunty Ida’s Full-Service Mental Institution (by Invitation Only).

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Time Travel with ‘London Hospital’

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I’ve started watching a British period show, “London Hospital.” Just a warning, if you’re squeamish, be prepared, there are some graphic bits about medical procedures.

Anyway, it’s set around 1906 in the great London Hospital (now the Royal London Hospital). It grabbed me because I adore the show “Call the Midwife,” and the London is a character there as well, serving the poor East End half a century later.

So there it stands, the stalwart hospital. Since 1740.

Imagine that. A hospital in service for nearly 275 years. There’s a new building now, of course, I looked it up, it’s a great big shiny expanse of glass and steel, clean, antiseptic.

But it’s still the same institution, in spirit. It’s incredible to see how brutal medicine looked just over a century ago, how mystifying and obstinate ailments morphed into things we easily tame today, like dehydration.

And I can’t help but think, in a hundred years from now, how brutal our medicine will look, how people will marvel at how easily they tame our most resistant problems. Science is a never-ending journey, and even we have a long, long way to go.

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