![[atom.xml]](atompixel.png "Subscribe to the Atom feed for this podcast."){kind=tracking}
Copyright © 2006 Greg Peterson
When I was a boy growing up on a farm, every summer I slept outdoors. Sometimes my cousins joined me. We would lie on our backs, gazing at the Northern Lights and the stars, and an occasional satellite. We often wondered how the stars got there, who made them, and if there was life out there somewhere. As young country boys, we were awed by the big picture of the cosmos.
Recently I was reminded of those summer nights of my boyhood. The November, 2006, Scientific American has an article, "The Dark Ages of the Universe," by Abraham Loeb (295.5:22-29). In the first paragraph, Loeb writes:
When I look up into the sky at night, I often wonder whether we humans are too preoccupied with ourselves. There is much more to the universe than meets the eye on earth. As an astrophysicist I have the priviledge of being paid to think about it, and it puts things in perspective for me. There are things that I would otherwise be bothered by—my own death, for example. Everyone will die sometime, but when I see the universe as a whole, it gives me a sense of longevity. I do not care so much about myself as I would otherwise, because of the big picture.