I have been teaching science to young adults in my hometown for over 15 years, rambling along the way. Thanks for stopping by.
Science teacher
Molting
As the daylight shortens and the shadows grow longer, critters, human and otherwise, hunker down for the hungry days.
A ghost crab sits at the edge of the bay, exposed by the low tide, molting its summer shell before crawling deep into the beach to wait out the dark.
My skin lightens, melanocytes no longer waving tentacles laden with packets of pigment, no need to do the work when it no longer matters.
Through billions of years of evolution, doing pointless work leads to extinction. Laziness is a gift.
And here we are, pretending machines can make the pointless worthwhile.
Me? Time for a handful of freshly made bread, time for a nap, time to sit in the still warm October light.
Precision
The recipe says set the oven to 450°.
I have baked a lot of bread, and I know that this oven lies. I could check it with a thermometer, but no need. I trust my experience. I set the oven to 420°, but I believe it’s closer to 450° inside, and that belief is based on experience.
Still, the oven’s bright digital display of numbers in an authoritative font makes me question myself every time–and that is the threat of science (or at least, technology). Trusting the abstract over your senses.
Rosemary bread, just out of the oven a few minutes ago….
If you want to make a missile, well, you’re going to have to trust the tech. If you want to make a decent loaf of bread, trust your hands.
Perihelion, again
Just a few hours ago, we got as close to the center of our life force as we are going to get this year, three million (or so) miles closer than we will be in early summer.
That any of us are alive is beyond miraculous. The sun is the source of energy every thought you have, every twitch you make.
Some of us will not be here to see the sun the next time perihelion rolls around; some yet born will see the sun for the first time.
On New Year’s Day, “Pope Francis warned Christians against ‘imagining or inventing a God in the abstract’ during his Mass for the Solemnity of Mary, the Most Holy Mother of God,” as per the Vatican News.
I am not opposed to religion. It might even be innate. What destroys us is not religion per se but its abstract forms. The sun is real, its evidence seen daily, its power beyond comprehension. The Son, not so much.
Yesterday we passed as close to the sun as we will all year, a powerful “being” that drives all our motions, all our thoughts. The sun is real, The Son abstract.
Sol Invictus, mofos!