Symphony of Science

I'm sure that all of you area well aware of the autotune craze that has swept YouTube (I'm thinking specifically of Autotune the News: if you haven't seen it, you have a Google date in about five minutes). Via one of the most fantastic, aware individuals that I know, I bring you "Symphony of Science", featuring some of the most beloved scientists (of an astronomical ilk) of the past few decades: Neil deGrasse Tyson, Richard Feynman, Carl Sagan, and, duh, Bill Nye.



As Laura points out, today would have been Carl Sagan's seventy fifth birthday. Rarely has an American scientist been so socially aware (leading the push for nuclear disarmament) or able to popularize his field to such an extent. Last year, I heard an interview with his widow, Ann Druyan, about the "ark of culture" that they had put together (actually, they each left their respective spouses for each other while putting it together, goops) and were sending through space in a gold capsule; a physical record of the existence of man.

How romantic, how fucking incredible is that? Astronomy has never appealed to me, but this is something else: this is bigger.

Here, when he says, "the beauty of a living thing is not the atoms that go into it, but the way those atoms are put together," I cannot help but think of all of you. This is why biology, poetry, and architecture go hand-in-hand: their relationship to form. And that's why I can't help but get a little teary over how amazing all of these things are.