There\u2019s a lot of catastrophe in our lives today. We fear: fear for the loss of freedom, fear for a future of financial disruption, fear for our fellow humans thrust into inhumane conditions. And we fear that our world will never be the place we thought it was, or could be. There is no easy way out, no election \u201ctomorrow\u201d to change leadership (maybe the British Parliament has it right after all). We are, as truckers say, in \u201cfor the long haul\u201d. By the narrowest of margins our electoral fate was decided, and now, we must \u201cpay the piper\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Perhaps we need to take a wider view of our universe. And what better place to do that from, then the James Webb Space Telescope, orbiting a central location (called L2), literally a million miles away between the earth and the sun. The Webb is much more than just the telescope like we had in the backyard as kids. It can measure all sorts of wavelengths beyond the \u201cvisual range\u201d, and see far into the universe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One of its targets is an \u201cexo-planet\u201d (a planet not orbiting our sun) called K2-18b. It\u2019s about six times bigger than earth and it orbits a smaller red sun 124 light years away (the 700 trillion miles \u2013 now that\u2019s a \u201cwider view\u201d). And the Webb Space Telescope can not only find K2-18b, but it can measure the infra-red radiation of the red sunlight passing through its atmosphere. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
We know that our oceans are filled with small living organisms like plankton. There are the basic building block of the food chain, smaller living things (and giant whales) eat the plankton, bigger living things eat the smaller things: we can all now sing \u201cThe Circle of Life\u201d from the Lion King.<\/em> And that plankton gives off two gases into the atmosphere: dimethyl sulphide (DMS) and dimethyl disulphide (DMDS). (For those of us who slept through biology class \u2013 hang on for just another paragraph!!!).<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n When the infra-red light of K2-18b\u2019s sun passes through its atmosphere, it reveals the presence of DMS and DMDS. The Webb Telescope can detect that light. What all that might mean, is there is a planet, 700 trillion miles away, that has the presence of biological life as we know it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n At least, that\u2019s what some scientists think. Others aren\u2019t absolutely sure. And, they are doing exactly what scientists should do: raising questions, developing other possibilities, and looking for more evidence. Is it possible that an atmosphere might have DMS and DMDS without the plankton producing the gases? And, after 124 years of travel (remember, 124 light years means that the spectrum Webb is seeing actually left K2-18b in 1901 on our calendar), are we certain what we are seeing?<\/p>\n\n\n\n The scientists making the claim of life are hedging their bets as well. They are only 99.7% sure they\u2019re right. For \u201cscientific certainty\u201d they need to reach 99.99999% (five decimal points) certain. That will require at least two more years of data. <\/p>\n\n\n\n We have a lot of work to do here on earth.\u00a0\u00a0And it seems, that in our era, that work is becoming much harder.\u00a0\u00a0For many of us, the basic building blocks of our government and our rights, are suddenly called into question.\u00a0\u00a0We wonder how we can help our fellow citizens, and our fellow humans.\u00a0\u00a0We no longer feel our democracy is inevitable.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0It is, and always was, a work in progress, and one that needs fierce defending.\u00a0\u00a0And if defending our ideals isn\u2019t enough incentive, here\u2019s another reason.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There might be life on a planet \u201cfar, far, away\u201d, called K2-18b.\u00a0\u00a0It might just be plankton, but where there\u2019s plankton, there might be more.\u00a0\u00a0And if we can find life on one planet in the universe, it\u2019s likely out of the millions of planets \u201cout there\u201d, there\u2019s more life to find.\u00a0\u00a0Don\u2019t we want to know, don\u2019t we want to \u201c…boldly go where no one has gone before\u201d?\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0And if not us, shouldn\u2019t we want our children or grandchildren to have such an opportunity?\u00a0\u00a0Remember, in 1901, when the infra-red light left K2-18b, the Wright Brothers were just bicycle mechanics with an \u201cinterest\u201d in gliders.\u00a0\u00a0The Wright Flyer was still two years in the future.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Who can say how far our children can go, in the next 124 years?\u00a0\u00a0Sure, we might not be able to \u201csee\u201d how interstellar space travel could work.\u00a0\u00a0But my twenty-one year old grandfather in 1901, didn\u2019t see how air travel would work, or even that his own son would make a living working in an electronic medium called television.\u00a0\u00a0We need to give our children a chance to change even more than \u201cjust the world\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n But to do all that, we need to get our own house in order.\u00a0\u00a0If not for freedom, if not for the Constitution, if not for our \u201cAmerican dream\u201d, then for our children.\u00a0\u00a0We need to fix our problems so they can stand on our shoulders, and look even farther than the Webb Space Telescope can see.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s up to us.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Certainty<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
So what?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Stand on our Shoulders<\/h3>\n\n\n\n