Today in class, our professor told us that the colorful images we see of the universe are all fake. Even though the structures and clouds are all actual photographs, the colors are all artificially inputed to make the images more surreal and pleasing to the eye. We learned how to do exactly that today. After downloading the image datasets from spacetelescope.org, we used the FITS Liberator application to render the images before importing them into photoshop. Within photoshop, we applied filters to the three separate images, changing them into red, blue and green. Then, we layered them on top of each other, tweaked the color scales a little bit and out came this following masterpiece.

Honestly, this picture may look impressive but anyone with a computer could do it in 30 mins. Anyways, the picture I picked is of the Nebular Cloud – Messier 17. I picked it because it seemed relevant since we just learned about the Nebular Theory and how galaxies form from nebular clouds. Over time, the particles in these clouds collide with each other and some of them, ones that spin in a specific direction, will form spiral galaxies, the ones without a uniform spin will end up as elliptical galaxies. I think the nebular cloud in this picture is still in the early stages of its development so its impossible to tell whether the Messier 17 will end up as a spiral galaxy, or an elliptical galaxy.

After watching the an hour and a half long film twice, I have to say 343 Industries did a great job producing this Forward Unto Dawn. the aesthetics, designs, mechanics and storyline were all very engaging. The environment and building structures definitely put the Halo universe into scope. The visuals were pleasing, yet not distracting. So a little introduction about Forward Unto Dawn, it is based in our universe, in the year 2525. On the planet Circinius IV, United Nations Space Command (UNSC) holds the Corbulo Academy of Military Science. It is a military institution named after Gnaeus Domitius Corbulo, a Roman General who died in 67 AD. Corbulo was ordered to commit suicide by his emperor, which he did so loyally in the name of the Empire, yelling “Axios!” as he took his own life. “Axios.” Greek for “I am worthy,” is fittingly the motto of the Corbulo Academy of Military Science. The academy is a training ground for young soldiers mainly to fend off the insurrectionists (rebels) from taking over the outer space colonies. The protagonist Thomas Lasky is a part of the Hastati Squad at the academy. The night before Lasky’s medical leave, the academy were hit by the Covenant, a unified alien force with over 8 races. They unite under common worship of the Forerunners, an ancient, super advanced race. In the final moments of the Forerunners’ civilization, they named humanity as its successor, just as the ones who came before did. As a result, in 2525, Covenant began a campaign to eliminate humanity, since humans are an insult to the Forerunners in our very own existence. Forward Unto Dawn captures the events of this alien invasion on Circinius IV.

Forward Unto Dawn has a rather different take on aliens then some movies have, though there is still a vast number of similarities. For one, they are much more advanced than humanity, they are barbaric, and they have come to wipe out humanity. The difference is the possibility that alien races could unite under the same cause as countries do. Even though most of Covenant races have a face and four limbs, they are not necessarily humanoids.  343 Industries said that they design the Covenant to look like animals, drawing features from birds, worms, bears, monkeys and reptiles. Moreover, as advanced as the Covenant are, they still believe in religion. It certainly demonstrates that religion can bring people (races) together, but can also start wars. Overall, I would certainly recommend this film to anyone, it has great potential for a sequel or even a TV show.

“Does science matter? Do people care about it anymore?” William J. Broad and James Glanz asked, in their 2003 New York Times article titled Does Science Matter?. This question made me pause as I read through this article. Why DO so many people believe that science has lost its purpose? Why has scientific research been privatized across the board since the Cold War? 

Even if people believe science has lost reason, there is no doubt that science has served its purpose, whether its in medicine, public health, civil engineering, technology and all the conveniences that came with it. The reason Congress has lost interest in scientific research is because they serve to represent their statesmen’s opinions, which are far from positive. To be honest, I can understand the negativity. Currently, there is no perceived threat to humanity. There is no disease or world war that threatens us right now. Sure, we talk about nuclear arms and global warming all the time, but if you are an average American, born and raised in a small town in Arizona, such things may seem unperceivable, or even scary, especially when it comes to genetic modification and sorts.

I, for one, assumes that Darwin’s Theory is true (Trust me, the article talks about an alternative theory that a group of scientists wants taught in public schools). And as he states, along with proof of time and history, evolution is driven by threat of extinction: natural selection, survival of the fittest. A simple example is the evolution of crop bugs. If humans never invented pesticides, bugs would never have become immune to a certain pesticide. It is because pesticides threaten a species to extinction that it has to evolve to survive. After applying pesticides, only the bugs that have become immune to it will survive, they will then reproduce offspring that will also be immune. In a few seasons, the farmland will once again be swarmed with bugs, now immune to the pesticide once used to kill them. So we create different kinds of pesticides to deal with these evolving “superbugs.” And this evolutionary cycle repeats itself. This is natural selection, survival of the fittest: The strong survive, the weak perish. Threat of extinction drives evolution.

Similarly, humans have evolved in such a way. when we were attacked by SARS and H2N1, we found ways to contain, if not cure, such diseases. We quarantined patients to prevent a major outbreak, protecting humanity. Whenever there is a major disease, government funding will spontaneously appear. The problem with researching global warming is that it has not harmed us directly. Yet. Global warming is mother nature’s wake-up call for humanity. If we don’t put in the money and research soon, and humanity gets hit one day by global warming as it did in The Day After Tomorrow (2004) or 2012 (2009), it will already be too late for the public to learn their lesson. Hopefully, humanity will go through natural selection then. But as history has demonstrated many a time, natural selection is never smooth and peaceful, but regretful and deadly.

Hi, I’m Ryan. I’m a first-year at Colorado College and this blog will be a window to my thoughts, ideas and mind for my current class, Life in the Universe. We just had our first introduction to the class today and it sounds awesome. We’ll be talking astronomy, astrophysics, aliens, Men in Black, suns and stars and all that jazz. We will also be going on a stargazing trip, which I am stoked for. I actually have not had much experience camping and sorts but Colorado is as good a place to start as any I guess. I did go on a trip with a friend in Utah, hiking around Goblin Valley, the Arches National Park and  slot canyons. That trip definitely sparked interest in me to take this course. I remember on the first night the sky was covered in stars; raining from the top all the way down to the horizon. Absolutely stunning.  It was the most beautiful skyline I’ve ever seen. Since then, I’ve always wanted to learn more about the enterprise of stars that lie up there.

I was born in LA and raised in Hong Kong. When I was in 8th grade, my parents gave me the opportunity to study in the States, so I took it. I studied at Concord Academy near Boston, Mass. for four years, and it wasn’t easy. I had never been challenged academically that much before. But more importantly, I learned more about myself than I did about school work. My dad would always say, “a good teacher does not give his/her students knowledge, but teaches them how to learn and inspires them.” Concord definitely did that for me.

I am currently undeclared but my interests lie in Physics and Economics. Physics is definitely my favorite natural science because it is visible unlike chemistry and biology. I can’t see hormones or atoms, I can’t see the oxygen flowing through my system, but I can certainly see gravity. I can see projectile motion. I can see levers, pendulums and centripetal acceleration. These are all things that we already use in our daily lives, physics is simply a way of understanding and explaining the tools of life.

On the other hand, Economics was interesting to me because it is also a different way of looking at life and problems. In any community we have cultural practices that we do on a daily basis, most of which are based on tradition. No one every judges or questions these practices because it is “just the way things are around here.” Often times, there are more efficient ways of doing things but they often elude our minds because they would be deemed socially unacceptable.

As for astronomy, space, stars and planets are undoubtedly tied to the beginning of life. And the answer (if there is one out there) to one of the oldest questions of mankind, “Where did life begin?” surely fascinates me. Obviously I don’t expect to get an answer to that question in this class, but I definitely want to learn more about other potential life forms, astrophysics and Life in the Universe.