{"id":52550,"date":"2022-12-05T02:36:44","date_gmt":"2022-12-05T02:36:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/essays.homeworkacetutors.com\/2022\/12\/dust\/"},"modified":"2022-12-05T02:36:44","modified_gmt":"2022-12-05T02:36:44","slug":"dust","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colapapers.com\/us\/dust\/","title":{"rendered":"Dust"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\u201cWe are, all of us, what happens when a primordial mixture of hydrogen and helium evolves for so long that it begins to ask where it came from.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2013 Jill Tarter, director of the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI)<\/p>\n

At first blush, it might seem a little disheartening; all of humanity\u2019s accomplishments \u2013 from our skyscrapers and legislatures to our philosophies and works of art \u2013 degraded to the status of primordial hydrogen and helium. Dust. Yet, in my opinion, the fact that mankind and all our accomplishments have evolved from a billion-year-old cloud of gas has fascinating implications.<\/p>\n

The universe was here before human beings \u2013 long before. Our species evolved rather recently after a tooth-and-nail victory in survival-of-the-fittest. As is the nature of evolution, humans have acquired traits that make us very good at survival; we are experts at eating, sleeping, and \u2013 most importantly \u2013 passing down our genes. Yet evolution said nothing of giving humans the ability to comprehend the underlying nature of the universe.<\/p>\n

Isn\u2019t it strange, then, that our species has come all the way from stalking prey to pondering the nature of M-theory\u2019s 11th dimension? Isn\u2019t it fantastically bizarre that this mixture of hydrogen and helium that we call life has begun asking where it came from?<\/p>\n

There is no reason that we should be able to ponder abstract mathematics or the nature of the cosmos, yet we do. The other day, I read about a prediction of superstring theory claiming that, at a fundamentally small scale, space and time do not exist. Yup, you heard me right. If we were to aim our all-powerful microscopes past the scale of molecules and atoms, further still than even electrons, we would eventually come to a place where the concepts of space and time cease to have meaning. If this isn\u2019t mind-boggling, perception-shattering, and brain-flattening, then I don\u2019t know what is. <\/p>\n

This is definitely too much for me. I can\u2019t imagine a world without Starbucks, let alone space and time. But that\u2019s just the point; the more scientists understand the fundamentals of the cosmos, the more they realize that nature does not conform to human intuition. The eyes and minds that we have been given \u2013 which aren\u2019t too shabby for primordial dust \u2013 cannot begin to conceptualize the true nature of reality. Yet we have tools to go beyond what we can imagine. The mathematics and sciences that we have developed allow us to stretch into the deepest and most instinct-defying realms of nature. No one can imagine Schrodinger\u2019s waves of probability or the 11 dimensions of Calabi-Yau shapes, yet we can describe them in equations. Us. Dust. <\/p>\n

I don\u2019t know about you, but this is just the thing that gives me an adrenaline rush when I\u2019m integrating the cubic root of x. This is what makes me jump at vector multiplication. By chance, I exist through the haphazard collision of interstellar gas. By chance, I have been given the ability to reason, to imagine, and \u2013 when I can\u2019t imagine \u2013 to use mathematics to stretch the limits of my understanding. Isn\u2019t that exciting? Isn\u2019t that fantastic? <\/p>\n

So, for the rest of my life, I want to study physics and math. Why? Because that\u2019s a pretty unlikely thing for dust to do.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cWe are, all of us, what happens when a primordial mixture of hydrogen and helium evolves for so long that it begins to ask where it came from.\u201d \u2013 Jill Tarter, director of the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) At first blush, it might seem a little disheartening; all of humanity\u2019s accomplishments \u2013 from our […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8656,8571,5964,5961],"tags":[8657,8660,6963,6862,8659,8658],"class_list":["post-52550","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-assessment-task","category-assessments-australia","category-free-essay","category-homework-help","tag-affordable-college-homework","tag-apa-citation-assignment-help","tag-custom-essay-writing","tag-online-homework-help","tag-phd-dissertation-help","tag-research-essay-support"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.colapapers.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52550","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.colapapers.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.colapapers.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.colapapers.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.colapapers.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=52550"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.colapapers.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52550\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.colapapers.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52550"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.colapapers.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52550"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.colapapers.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52550"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}