Con: Boy, do I feel stupid, thanks to these guys.
The announcement was made by a consortium of international researchers, headed by the Geneva Observatory, who built the High Accuracy Radial Velocity Planet Searcher, or HARPS. The device can detect slight wobbles of stars as they respond to tugs from exoplanets' gravity. That tactic, known as the radial velocity method, "has been the most prolific method in the search for exoplanets," according to the European Southern Observatory statement.Detecting slight wobbles of stars millions and millions of miles from here? Using a "radial velocity method"? Think you're smarter than the rest of us, with your fancy equations and giant telescopes? Well, you are. So screw you, geeks.
Pro: Boy, do I feel way cool compared to these guys. Wicked smart, I'm sure some of them have come up with a formula for seducing women, perhaps by luring them into their observatories and showing them the great expanse of the universe with their manly computer technology. But seriously, what are the odds? I recently went to a wedding full of incredibly smart people - PhDs in astrophysics or bioengineering or something. I can honestly say I was the coolest person in the room. And all I had to do was show up.
Con: What the heck am I doing with my life? These people are discovering the universe, for goodness sake! I'm sitting here at a computer writing a blog about how smart but geeky these guys are, and they're finding new worlds. Them: Christopher Columbus of the heavens; me: Christopher Marlowe, without the talent or the fame.
Pro: Spending all that time with equations and staring through a telescope? What sort of difference are they really making? I may not be saving whales or anything (though I can say that my last job involved attempting to limit the harm to whales from coastal development) but one could argue what these guys are doing is equally unproductive for society.
Conclusion: Despite my complaints, astronomers rock, if only because they expand the limits of our knowledge... and from time to time, make me feel cooler. A little.
It's interesting that in the same post in which you find yourself to be the 'coolest person in the room' just for showing up, you talk about how they (astronomers) are so much cooler than you for doing cool stuff. Like exploring the universe.
ReplyDeletePerhaps they won't discover anything Earth shattering or anything that will change society. And maybe not even the next generation of geeky astronomers working off their research. Maybe the third generation?
Just as you hope the next generation or the generation after that will be able to work off of your work to make a (more significant but no more important) difference.
Pro: They get to search for H2O on the moon and possibly other planets, so when we run out, (Some would argue: IF we run out :0P) they can be our heroes.
ReplyDeleteCon: They start the search by firing bombs at the moon. What will happen? Was the moon strong enough for this? What happens if a asteroid hits it? Would it break into large pieces, sending moon missiles towards earth?
Pro: They get to have people create new kinds of freeze-dried food for them to eat, when they go to space.
Con: They have to go into space for months at a time, leaving loved ones to fend for themselves, almost like soldiers.
I would pretty much be happy to clean the floors and worship astronomers who can do math like that and find exoplanets.
ReplyDeleteYou do cool stuff too, you're going to save all the endangered species on earth. ftw!