Sharon Lin

As raindrops fell into my open palms, I curiously observed their forms while they broke apart and rejoined with their neighboring orbs. The observation immediately brought about a slew of questions: ­ What happens to raindrops when they fall, and how do they combine so easily with other droplets? What is their composition, and how are they created to begin with?

I can’t recall a time when I wasn’t asking questions about the world around me. Whether they were scientific in nature or purely philosophical, I’ve always examined my observations, trying to find out more about the hidden secrets that govern my external surroundings.

It’s fair to say that I’ve behaved this way since I was born — after all, infants are known for their prodding curiosity and tendency to taste and touch everything around them. Brought into a world filled with endless color and sensations, newborns naturally tend to utilize their senses to gain clues into their surroundings. Their innate curiosity drives them to explore their space in order to understand the rules that govern the world around them.

As we grow older and mature into adults, we become better acquainted with these laws, understanding that when we jump, we will always return to the ground, and that when we close our eyes, the world doesn’t disappear before us. As a result, it isn’t hard to see why scientists and thinkers of the past were puzzled by phenomena that broke these laws.

What the seafarers of the Age of Exploration discovered through their circumnavigation of the globe shattered expectations of a flat world, just as Sputnik, the first man-made satellite, opened outer space to human exploration. As the breadth of our scientific knowledge expands, we continually seek to learn more about the universe and the multitude of secrets that it holds just beyond our understanding.

Nonetheless, such curiosities provoke a profound inquiry: why are we so curious about our universe?

The way we view our world is shaped by the space we inhabit within it and the people and objects with which we interact. As French philosopher Jean­ Paul Sartre wrote in his famed play No Exit, “You are your life and nothing else.” Our understanding of the world is limited by the observations we are able to make over the course of our lives and the experiences we have had since birth.

Through years of human exploration, we have stretched and surpassed these innate boundaries, yet the answers to our questions are always seemingly at bay. The pragmatic explanation for our boundless curiosity is that exploration provides us a challenge. It forces us to contend with the limits of our knowledge, and to find new ways to overcome obstacles in order to progress in our work. While we may not always be successful, even small triumphs can bring about new technologies, insights, and understanding in fields such as medicine and space exploration.

In addition, discoveries about our universe’s past can bring about clues as to where we are headed in the future. According to NASA, studying the physical characteristics of asteroids within our solar system can reveal clues as to how to reduce the threat of future impact. Operations in translunar space can similarly uncover new ways to prevent the catastrophic effects of galactic cosmic radiation ­- one of the most threatening elements to humans exploring deep space. Even biological experiments conducted aboard the International Space Station can provide data on how our DNA reacts to a zero­-gravity environment, and how processes such as aging and reproduction can be manipulated in different physical settings.

For a different perspective, we can look towards our evolutionary past for a possible answer to the benefits of discovery and innovation. At the birth of humanity, when we lived as primal hunter-gatherers, forced to fend for ourselves against an unknown world, our sole means of survival was through trial and error — essentially, discovering the rules governing our universe on our own.

Our continuous contemplation may simply be a residual trait from this evolutionary necessity. After all, superior intelligence has enabled our species to overcome our physical limitations to essentially dominate the earth through technological advancements developed over millennia of curiosity and ingenuity. While finding a reason for our existence or a greater understanding of the laws of the universe may not immediately increase our chances of survival, they have led to groundbreaking technological achievements, which have in turn provided us with means of improving our standard of living on a global scale.

Even so, there is a stark distinction between applicable research and pure research. This can be seen best in the field of mathematics, where mathematicians are typically classified into two schools — those who perform applicable mathematical research, and those who operate in pure theory. Yet the near-equal personal satisfaction from the pursuit of either field demonstrates how our curiosity for theoretical matters is just as merited as our fascination for pragmatic ones. Our minds simply rely on stimulus, and once this need is met, the origin or purpose of the stimulus becomes less important than the stimulus itself.

Therein lies what may be the answer to our calling. Perhaps our curiosity exists simply because we are capable and willing to exhibit such curiosity in the first place. Such an assumption can certainly lead to the notion that we seek answers to satisfy our own curiosity, without regard to that of others. In that sense, we are indeed acting selfishly despite the potential positive consequences of our actions. What allows this concept to differ from that of pure egotism, however, is the fact that our curiosity also builds us individually, providing us a means of intellectual growth.

While it certainly is difficult to generalize this drive for exploration, it is possible that this aspect may have originated from a variety of circumstances, most importantly allowing us to seek challenges and stretch the limits of our curiosity and intellect. Perhaps we may not always be able to find a useful or justifiable cause for our constant inquiry, but the process of finding answers is enough to justify our constant drive to explore.

Looking back to my earliest explorations, I find truth in this belief. The musings of my past were conducted not out of desire for advancement in a field or even personal gain, but rather an urge to understand the unknown. By filling this void that we are unable to escape, perhaps we are developing our intelligence and allowing ourselves to continually evolve as our capacity to understand the world grows with every discovery we make. After all, in a universe far too vast for any individual to comprehend, the least we can do is celebrate every breakthrough within its bounds.

In a KidSpirit Big Question response, teen writer Sharon Lin examines the human drive to expand our knowledge and question our universe.

Why Do We Seek to Find Out More About the Universe?

Daniel Goetz

It was day ten of my month at Camp Pathfinder. It was day four of my first trip into the wilderness of Algonquin Provincial Park.

I had wanted to go to this camp my entire life; my friend had talked about how fun it was for years. I expected it to be awesome, but I had no idea the kind of awesome I would experience.

However, at that moment, paddling in the rain, all I wanted to do was go home. We had been canoeing across lakes and carrying our gear across land for four days. My arms felt like they were going to fall off. That day we were paddling on the largest lake in the park, and it was pouring rain. Even though I had my jacket on, rain was trickling down my neck, making my clothes wet. I was kneeling in a puddle that covered the bottom of the canoe.

The wind blew so hard that trees were falling. Lightning was crashing in the distance. The air was so cold that when I dipped my hand into the cool lake, it felt like a warm bath. Suddenly the boat started to tip because of the wind. My friend Mac and I had to fight to keep it steady. We just kept paddling hard.

When we saw the designated camp site, I felt a rush of relief. As we paddled closer, we all knew we were going to get a rest.

When we came ashore, some campers were already there. They offered to let us rest for a bit under a tarp. The tarp collected raindrops, and we filled our water bottles with delicious sweet water. We had been drinking lake water treated with purification tablets that tasted awful.

After we rested, we paddled onto another camping area 20 minutes away. There we set up our tents in the rain and dark and soon escaped into our cozy dry sleeping bags in our our cozy warm tents. The warmth soothed my achy arms. I was exhausted and also excited to finally be at our home for the night.

The next morning, the rain was pelting off our tent and the air was freezing cold. We were supposed to go for a hike but didn’t want to, so we made a genius plan. When the staff came to get us for the day, we pretended to cry. The counselors became very overwhelmed by this and said we could go back into our tent for a little bit so that they could talk. A couple of minutes later, we got the good news: we had been given a day to relax.

Unfortunately, we had already packed up our tent. So we set it back up. Then we disappeared into it for the entire day. The staff cooked us noodles, and we ate them by the handful out of the pan. One counselor said, “If it’s still raining by tomorrow, we will get an evacuation.”

The day was filled with sleeping, reading, and talking. We didn’t have dinner until late that night, but that only made us more grateful for it. The counselors made the tastiest, warmest, gooiest tuna melt sandwiches over the fire. I can’t say I have ever loved a dinner so much. It was a strong feeling of home and comfort in a wild, rainy place.

Then the rain stopped. That night I lay there in the quiet. In Brooklyn, where I am from, it is never quiet and never dark. I couldn’t sleep, so I went outside to take a short walk. The sky had been grey and cloudy for days. I wasn’t prepared for what I saw when I looked up. Here, away from the light pollution that I was used to at home, the sky was full of stars. There were so many it was as though I could see the entire universe. I felt dizzy looking up at that huge sky; I was so small beneath something so big. It was an awesome sight.

We went on one more trip, and then it was time for my parents to pick me up. On the way home, my family and I got stuck in the Toronto airport, and it was there I first realized I had been changed by my camp experiences.

As I stood in line to board the plane, the monitors and announcements and bustle of people were jarring. My body and mind had learned to tune into natural things. While I was away, I had forgotten about anything electronic, because we weren’t allowed to have phones or video games. At home, I had depended on these devices to calm down after a long day at school. But at camp I felt peaceful out in the wilderness sleeping on the ground, swimming in the lake, and even letting the rain soak my clothes until I was wet and freezing.

Now, when I feel stress, I know a peaceful place to think about. Thinking of nature calms me when I have too much homework or a test.

I talked a lot to my family about what happened over the summer. I realized that maybe you need to be in a different place to feel new things. Maybe you need to feel scared or tired or homesick to discover different ways to feel awe.

I concluded that in order to feel warmth, I had to feel the cold. Having less at camp made me feel more. I appreciated water, rain jackets, food, shelter, and friendship in a way I didn’t before. A simple tuna melt became an amazing feast that tasted better than any food on this planet.

Finally, I realized that if I had quit on that rainy day and gone home, I would not have had all the incredible times that followed. I learned that I have to go through some tough times to have nice times. I had to paddle hard to get to the warm cozy tent. Even though my arms ached and my mind was desperate, I pushed through to get to where I was going. I finished that first trip and went on the paddle for another week. I didn’t go home; I stayed and finished my three and a half weeks. Now, I feel more independent and confident. If I can paddle in the cold rain, I can do anything.

Maybe accomplishing something difficult is like peeling back layers of yourself and revealing what is inside, and this can be a surprise. I would never have thought that I could have done what I did at camp. Being there allowed me to uncover a mystery about myself: that I am stronger than I thought. I like to think that finding a part of myself was like the rain stopping and the clouds parting, letting me see the millions of stars that night at camp.

In a KidSpirit Awesome moments piece, teen writer Daniel Goetz describes an experience at camp that revealed new things about the world, the universe, and his very self.

A Rainy Day at Camp

Lulu Rasor

What comes to mind when you hear the words “genetically engineered”?

Slavering, lab-made monsters that dine on human flesh? A world as we know it collapsing as bioengineered creatures turn on their creators? Grotesque animal-human hybrids bred for war? Animals from centuries ago brought back to roam the Earth? Something straight out of science fiction, with scientists becoming gods as they tamper with the very DNA of living creatures?

As Frankenstein’s Cat: Cuddling Up To Biotech’s Brave New Beasts by science journalist Emily Anthes teaches, in reality, biotechnology is much more commonplace than you might think, and far more advanced than many people know. Published in 2013, the book is a good introduction to biotechnology. Each chapter explores an aspect of the field and the controversies that accompany it, culminating in a thoughtful epilogue discussing biotechnology as a whole.

While glowing fish sold in pet stores, cloned animals, goats with modified milk that might save lives, remote-controlled animal cyborgs, or tags that can track animals across oceans might sound like something out of science fiction, they are in fact a reality, and have been for several years. In the United States, the GloFish, zebrafish modified with jellyfish DNA that makes them glow under certain lights, are sold as close as Petco. In Brazil, goats are being altered so their milk produces high amounts of lysozyme, which might save the lives of the millions of children in developing countries who die from treatable diarrhea every year by preventing children from contracting gastrointestinal diseases. Backyard Brains, a business developed by former neuroscientists Tim Marzullo and Greg Gage, sells cheap kits that allow you to essentially hack the nervous system of a cockroach and create a remote-controlled bug.

Throughout Frankenstein’s Cat, Anthes discusses the many ways that biotechnology is taking shape today, whether it be the fairly nonsensical habit of preserving DNA of favorite pets in the chance that a beloved dead animal might be brought back to life in a perfect cloned copy, or useful and pragmatic applications, such as the engineering of prosthetic limbs for animals and humans alike.

Unfortunately, as biotechnology advances, prejudice towards its results grows. Some say that there’s a limit to how much humans should play god, and that engineering living creatures is that limit. While GloFish were able to proceed to stores relatively easily compared to other biotechnology products and can still be found for sale today, the potentially life-saving lysozyme-producing goats are still stuck on their farm as their creators battle for the right to put them into action. While biotechnology and its results are neither inherently good or bad, much of the public and members of the government are scared that tampering with living creatures crosses a line that should never even be approached.

However, as Anthes points out, one could argue that humans have been bioengineering animals for centuries (after all, don’t all dog breeds owe their existence to domestication and selective breeding?) and that biotechnology is simply the next step in a journey that’s been going on for as long as mankind has been around. Of course, dog breeding has had its fair share of negative consequences, with inbreeding causing genetic disorders that can quite hinder a dog’s enjoyment of life or even shorten its lifespan, and there’s a huge difference between the slow domestication of dogs and altering animals so they cannot feel pain. Anthes makes it clear that as biotechnology advances more and more, so do the questions we humans need to ask ourselves about what we’re doing.

Frankenstein’s Cat: Cuddling Up To Biotechnology’s Brave New Beasts is an utterly fascinating, relevant read. As the presence of biotechnology begins to grow in our world, we need to start asking questions about when we should stop, about what is too much. Turning rats or insects into remote-controlled cyborgs sounds inhumane at first, but what if they could help us search ruins after earthquakes to find buried survivors? At what point should we stop using animals for our own gain, even if that gain could be used to save lives?

While Frankenstein’s Cat doesn’t provide any of the answers (those need to be decided by us as a species, not by one author), it does give background and context, and, more importantly, starts asking questions that we’ll need to think about in the future. By covering multiple topics, both controversial questions and those that seem easier to answer, it prompts the reader to think: how far should we go in viewing animals as resources? Do we, as humans, have an obligation to try to improve life for all species on Earth? Even if it means sacrificing something that could help us?

When it comes to biotechnology, there are no easy answers or solutions, something that Emily Anthes is well aware of. Her aim is simply to expand our knowledge of the topics we’ll be dealing with soon, whether we want to or not. Perhaps the most important thing any reader will take away from Frankenstein’s Cat is that biotechnology isn’t a matter of “if”; it’s a matter of “when?” and “how much?”

I give Frankenstein’s Cat 4.5 out of 5 stars. I would recommend this book to almost anyone, whether they’re interested in biotechnology or not. It’s a credible, thorough source (as proven by the 47-page bibliography and glowing reviews by other scientists) that presents everything in a clear, often witty tone that doesn’t shy away from the weighty topics being dealt with. Even those (such as me) with no previous knowledge of genetics or biotechnology will find it a good way to start learning about these controversial topics, and for that I wholeheartedly recommend it.

In a KidSpirit Media review, teen writer Lulu Rasor gives her take on Frankenstein’s Cat: Cuddling Up To Biotech’s Brave New Beasts by science journalist Emily Anthes.

Cloning and Cyborgs and Bionics, Oh My!

Andrew Lu

We all wonder about our origins, births, and deaths. We’ve all asked our parents questions about where we came from.

As a third culture kid (TCK) and international school student from Canada and China, I grew up among different versions of stories about my own origin. Not only is my own background religiously diverse, but I am surrounded by people from all over the world who follow many different traditions. The girl who sits next to me in French class is Catholic and she comes from India. The make-up artist for my theater production club comes from a Mormon background and she is fabulous at applying eyeliner. The lady who serves my lunch everyday wears a bracelet made out of prayer beads, and the Chinese-American girl who lives next door goes to church every Sunday. These people are wildly different. Their religious backgrounds may or may not have taught them to see the mysteries of our universe in a certain way, but they all have our own interpretations.

It is hard for some of us to believe that our births and lives are simply scientific, all designated by cells and DNA. We humans like to believe that our lives are more than just amino acids and chromosomes arranged to create diversity. We each fancy ourselves to be mysteries of the universe. Our births are complicated results of karma and our lives are preordained by the deities of different religions. There are many enigmas in this world, and different religions have different perspectives on and explanations for them. From my religiously diverse background, I’ve learned plenty about the mysteries of birth and death.

Let’s start with death. According to the research that I did in social studies class about Hinduism, many Hindus believe in the rebirth and reincarnation of souls. In the Hindu tradition, souls are immortal and imperishable. A soul is part of a jiva, the limited being, who is subject to the impurities of attachment, delusion, and laws of karma. Death is therefore not a great calamity, not an end of all, but a natural process in the existence of a jiva (being) as a separate entity, a resting period during which it recuperates, reassembles its resources, adjusts its course and returns again to the earth to continue its journey. I like the Hindu take on death and the afterlife. I like to think that I could be Michael Jackson’s reincarnation and that in some past life, I was a famous singer.

My grandfather and his family are Muslim. They believe that human existence continues after the physical demise of a human body in the form of spiritual resurrection. Although my family has lost many connections with our Muslim roots, I am still amazed by the beauty of the Muslim cemetery every time I visit my grandfather’s grave.

Growing up in China, there was also a huge Buddhist influence on me. Many of my family’s friends are Buddhist. They also believe in karma — if one is kind and loving in his or her life, one will attain happiness in paradise. One of my closest friends is Buddhist; she is vegetarian and cares greatly about everybody’s well-being. In Beijing, I’ve witnessed people purchasing pet turtles from stores and markets just to release them into a pond. If that doesn’t get you into divine paradise, I don’t know what will.

The dark mystery of death may be too depressing to discuss, so let’s move on to a happier subject: birth. My mother’s best friend in Canada is Christian. One freezing summer night, she took us to her church in Toronto to attend a presentation by a famous Chinese reverend. At first I was reluctant. Watching television at home sounded like a much better way to spend a Saturday night, but my mother did not agree with me. So I went to the church, planning on playing Doodle Jump on my phone to pass the hours. However, as the reverend began speaking about his life lessons and philosophies and referencing the Bible, I was fascinated and drawn to his stories. At the end of the presentation, I was ready to be baptized.

Although I did not become Christian that evening, I still learned a great lesson on birth and Christianity’s understanding of it. A new life is a creation, and the process of creating is the conception and birth of a baby. Jesus was conceived of the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary. The birth of Jesus marks the commencement of a new era in Christianity, and so does his crucifixion. After Jesus was buried, he rose again and was resurrected. In other words, Jesus was born, crucified, and then born again. The repeating births show the importance of birth in the Christian tradition.

To be honest, I have no idea what religion I belong to, but that shouldn’t matter because how I see the mysteries of our universe is up to me. I like many religions, but it’s hard to pick one that I can truly relate to. I know this makes me sound like a spoiled rich person in a luxury store, “shopping” for religious beliefs, but it is true. Every time I hear something touching or beautiful about a religion, I feel like I belong to it. I may not understand a great deal about religious studies or how different religions and faiths interpret the mysteries of birth and death. But I do understand that I am truly lucky to be born with what I have and that I wouldn’t want to waste a single day of my life before death.

Michael Jackson, if you were my past self and you are reading this from rock star heaven right now, please know that I am thankful for what you did in your life to make me deserve mine. Also, how did you do the moonwalk? It has always been a mystery to me.

In a KidSpirit Interfaith Connections piece, teen writer Andrew Lu explores the diverse ways religions traditions teach us to approach the mysteries of birth, death, life, and karma. 

On Birth, Death, and Moonwalking

Jung Woo Bae

Approximately four and a half billion years old, with an atmosphere comprised of nitrogen, oxygen, and other gases. It is a planet brimming with life, boasting around nine million complex life species. Yet, according to Nature, “a staggering 86% of land species and 91% of marine species remain undiscovered,” meaning that Earth contains a greater array of organisms than we currently are aware of.

This thought alone is enough to startle and astonish, but humankind has gone an extra step by pondering the possibility of life outside the boundaries of Earth’s atmosphere. We were once too busy worrying about our own existence during more primitive times, but as science has developed and we have learned to use it well, we have begun searching for other life forms that may be living on a planet like ours. Our efforts to explore and discover should be a source of great pride for every human citizen on Earth; after all, our insatiable desire to wonder, dream, and imagine is what enables us to truly soar, to break boundaries and expectations, and to take one more step for mankind.

Unlike other planets that are relatively nearby, such as Venus or Mars, Earth is a planet where a great number of incredibly diverse life forms can exist. Ours is often referred to as the “Goldilocks planet”; in other words, it has the perfect conditions for life because it is neither too hot nor too cold. Even a small increase in Earth’s overall temperature would result in ice caps melting and, consequently, species in colder regions losing their habitats; a slight decrease would cover the whole planet in ice and snow, causing a tragic loss of species adapted to warmer temperatures.

As we are venturing out into the vast wilderness we call space, we are discovering that Earth may not be the sole planet with these life-sustaining conditions. In fact, in August 2016, astronomers announced that a planet of similar size to earth’s is orbiting Proxima Centauri (the nearest star to Earth) in the star’s “Goldilocks zone.” Furthermore, it seems that this planet has unique potential for research due to its close proximity to Earth; it is 4.2 light years (25 trillion miles) away from our planet, which may seem dauntingly far, but is actually considered very close in astronomical terms.

This discovery, however, is not the only evidence that could indicate life beyond Earth. One of Jupiter’s moons, Europa, has everything believed to be essential for life, namely water, energy, and organic chemicals. Saturn’s moon Enceladus is also a promising place for life to thrive, since it gains tidal energy from the planet it orbits and holds enough liquid water to fill an ocean.

Unfortunately, in our current circumstances, much of what exists in the cosmos remains unclear. We have a multitude of questions that will be left unanswered until our technology reaches a certain point so as to enable us to investigate further. For example, in order to accurately calculate the Drake Equation (an equation used to estimate the number of civilizations in the universe capable of communication), an improved form of sending messages to extraterrestrials is needed. On a smaller scale, astronomers have tried transmitting messages to the stars and placing discs on spacecraft for any species nearby to read so that they will be able to contact Earth.

Our road to investigating planets beyond Earth will be a long and difficult one. But once we overcome the technological difficulties and restrictions of current scientific techniques, once we embark on a journey to discover extraterrestrial life, our human spirit will burn brighter than ever before. We will be more than ready.

If we think beyond this point in time and imagine a future in which we are able to travel across galaxies and milky ways, what will happen if we do come across alien life? What then? Only imagination can allow us to comprehend what our responses will be. If we really do meet hostile, aggressive aliens like those depicted in the sci-fi films we all have watched at least once in our lives, we might retaliate. Or we might compromise. We may be awed at the beauty of some life forms, or horrified by the existence of others. The possibilities are endless.

Whatever we may come to know, whether we will discover that there are actually no life forms beyond our planet, or for some strange, unexplainable reason, interspace travel cannot be continued, at least we will have attempted to reach beyond the safety of our lives here on Earth.

No doubt our relentless drive to explore will bring us even greater pride in the future, and perhaps even propel us through infinite space.

Chang, Kenneth. "One Star Over, a Planet That Might Be Another Earth." New York Times. August 24, 2016. http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/25/science/earth-planet-proxima-centauri.html

Howell, Elizabeth. "How Friendly Is Enceladus' Ocean to Life?" Space.com. February 23, 2016. http://www.space.com/32021-how-life-friendly-is-enceladus-ocean.html

Howell, Elizabeth. "Drake Equation: Estimating the Odds of Finding E.T." March 26, 2014. http://www.space.com/25219-drake-equation.html

Redd, Nola Taylor. "Jupiter's Icy Moon Europa: Best Bet for Alien Life?" Space.com. August 22, 2014. http://www.space.com/26905-jupiter-moon-europa-alien-life.html

Sweetlove, Lee. "Number of Species on Earth Tagged at 8.7 Million." Nature. August 23, 2011. http://www.nature.com/news/2011/110823/full/news.2011.498.html

In a KidSpirit Feature article, teen writer Jung Woo Bae explores the possibility of discovering alien life on planets beyond earth.

Curiosity Propels Us

Heer Cheema

Words —
Dwindling
Nourishing
Diminishing
Soft
Whispered
Shouted
Recited
Loud
Sometimes heard

You are the daughter of the Punjab
Hardened by the South Asian sun
Rendered unbreakable by the current of the Chenab
Free words and words of freedom reconciling themselves in your blood — from her blood
You are Heer, not incarnate, but another Heer deemed worthy of incarnation.

Words that will settle in your place
Words that hug your roots
Digging deep into the soil to find you.

In a KidSpirit poem, teen poet Heer Cheema explores the power of language to express who we really are. 

Who Are We?

Kavya Shah

The ability to question is a power that we all have.

Sometimes I find answers to my questions, but sometimes I don’t. When I was a small child, there were times when my parents told me that there are no answers to certain questions. However, I have learned that even after we know they may not have answers, all questions are worthwhile. They can help us to discover more about our religion, our family, and even ourselves. Therefore I am always on a quest to understand the unknown.

Some children might just forget about difficult questions, but I like to explore the depth of everything and find its essence. My family has always encouraged me to investigate the unknown. I have found that sometimes even my elders are on a quest to find the answers to mysteries.

Our family observes the traditional Hindu rituals and I love questioning them. My grandmother has always been a talkative person and enjoys sharing stories of god or our family. She is very open, which helps me build a strong bond with her.

Once when I was reading the Mahabharata, a Hindu epic that tells us the story of a great war between good (the Pandavas) and evil (the Kauravas), I wanted to know what happens after one dies. I asked my grandmother this question. She told me that god sorts us into heaven or hell based on our karma (the good or bad that we do that shapes our destiny). After asking this question, I felt happy because I had an opportunity to build a close relationship with my grandmother and learn more about my religion.

My grandmother has a habit of saying god’s name before she sleeps. Once I questioned this habit and learned that this has been her practice since she was a girl. She says god’s name because she has faith that he will answer all her prayers.

A question opened up a cupboard of characteristics about my grandmother I did not know earlier. I never knew that she loves being helpful. She does not care about small petty arguments. She loves spending time with friends or a book.

Questions have the power to begin a relationship, spark love, or help you make a new friend. They can not only create a platform for exploration but also build up self-confidence.

An example of this would be questioning scientific phenomenon or other various things around us. Questions help us learn, discover, and understand. If Sir Isaac Newton had not asked, “What pulls the apple to the earth?,” he would have never discovered gravity.

Another instance is when I asked my mom, “What is the logic behind taking five steps back when a black cat cuts through your path?” She was stunned for a moment as she realized that she had just followed this old myth without knowing why. Then I did some research and found out that this practice is based on the belief that witches take the form of cats and while crossing the road they can cast a spell on you when they cross your path!

From this experience I learned that if I want to do something, I can. I love finding things out and feeling happy about my work. I also learned that I love surfing the net, and that investigating simple things can help build up great skill in asking meaningful questions.

If we slow down our pace of life and start enjoying things we have never thought about, I am sure we will start feeling happier. The joy in exploring and answering our questions is indeed special. I believe in questioning everything, as I know every question is worth asking.

In a KidSpirit Interfaith Connections article, teen writer Kavya Shah revels in the joy of questioning.

The Joy of Questioning

The human,
Smaller than an ant compared to the sun

The region of exploration,
For which surely there is anticipation

When I was very young, 
I asked my parents — 
Why does the moon shine at night?

I got my answer in the newspaper
This just shows
How important it is to find things out

A baby
Is a tiny drop of water in all the oceans

A star also has an identity,
Which scientists are still exploring

We are finding things out,
So are our friends, family, and community
We all will jump in the ocean of knowledge waiting to be shared

We are nothing compared to the Earth
The Earth is nothing compared to the Sun
The Sun is nothing compared to the Milky Way
The Milky Way is nothing compared to the universe

But,
What is the universe?
The cosmos, mass, outer space
Find out, and comment below
Let us all jump into a quest of finding things out

In a KidSpirit poem, teen poet Kavya Shah urges us all to join her in a quest to explore the universe and discover new knowledge.

Into the Ocean of Knowledge

Vanita Sharma

The universe is more beautiful than most humans can imagine.

Looking up at the sky, we often see distant moonlight faded by light pollution from cities. Even on the clearest days, our vision of the night sky is an incomplete version of what it really holds. Deep space objects, such as star clusters and nebulae beyond our solar system, are almost impossible to see without aid from specialized equipment.

In our fast-paced everyday lives, it is easy to overlook the fact that each of us is one human out of seven billion, in a solar system around one of trillions of stars. It’s hard to stay aware of that connection to our universe, but fields like astrophotography offer us insight into skies invisible to the human eye.

Astrophotography is a specialized type of photography for recording images of celestial objects in the night sky. It is popular among amateur astronomers who enjoy watching the sky as a hobby. Astrophotographers use a variety of equipment ranging from film cameras to video cameras hooked up to telescopes with varying magnification levels. Most astrophotographers set the cameras for long exposures, so they can capture the night sky as the Earth rotates.

In the past, astrophotography has been used for star classification and other specific fields of astronomical research. Many images taken by professionals reveal stars in the Milky Way that are too faint to observe through a telescope. This field has also contributed to our knowledge about objects beyond our galaxy. For example, in 1888 amateur astronomer Isaac Roberts took a long exposure picture that revealed the spiral structure of a nebula. It was the first photograph of an object from a different galaxy.

Today, however, astrophotography is more often used to enjoy our extraterrestrial surroundings. Delving into the field allows us to explore and appreciate the mysteries of our universe.

For this issue of KidSpirit, I interviewed Chris Baker, a professional astrophotographer based in the United Kingdom, to understand what incited his passion.

Fascinated by the night sky for as long as he can remember, Chris recalls borrowing his first small telescope around the age of 11 or 12. He explained that learning about and enjoying the night sky is possible using only the naked eye and binoculars. Chris mentioned, “Just identifying the constellations or watching a meteor shower can be so rewarding.”

Like Chris, I started discovering an interest in astronomy a few years ago while gazing at the night sky from my porch, though visibility was often poor because of clouds. One night when a foggy sky disappointed my hopes of watching the lunar eclipse, I found a link to a live broadcasting of the event. That night, as I discovered the field of astrophotography, I was able to enjoy the eclipse to an extent I never knew was possible. After I was amazed by the vivid high-definition images taken by professional photographers, I found a telescope to indulge in my developing passion.

Until now, the extent of my own astrophotography has been pictures taken from my telescope’s lens with my phone camera. I’ve been able to see and record Mars, Venus, and the Moon. Whenever I look into a telescope, I’m star-struck by the details I can see from more than 238,000 miles away. In order to enhance my experiences, I am currently in the process of convincing my parents to buy a professional camera I can attach to my telescope. I’ve also set up an Astronomy Club at my school, with plans to develop our knowledge of this field and further explore space through NASA-run projects.

Just as I am starting to expand my amateur interest with new equipment, Chris similarly started off slowly. As his enthusiasm developed, he started learning more about astrophotography, buying more advanced cameras and transitioning from black and white to color pictures. In 2012, he took a step forward and moved his equipment to a hosted site on top of a mountain in Spain. “Since then,” Chris says, “I have operated my equipment remotely, and given it is atop the mountain in a dark area with good weather, I can get a large amount of data with ‘narrowband’ imaging, which takes images through filters that only allow specific narrow wavelengths of light to be captured. It is this data I mainly use for my art.”

Chris focuses on “deep-sky objects,” or “those outside our solar system, typically such things as nebulae and star clusters within our galaxy, the Milky Way.” The colors these objects appear to the naked eye are not as vivid as the colors I had seen in photographs like Chris’s. When I asked Chris about the colors of deep space objects, he told me that “most objects are very faint at the distances they are from earth or earth orbit and therefore the eye cannot detect any colors. Some objects have obvious color, like the bright star Sirius, which is blue, or Betelgeuse, which is clearly orange/red.”

Since the colors are so faint to the human eye, I wondered why the pictures are so vibrant. I asked Chris how he was able to portray such rich photographs. Chris explained, “I use specific filters to capture the emissions of certain ionized gases. These are Hydrogen Alpha (HII), Sulphur (SII), and Oxygen (OIII). I then process these and eventually assign each set of data to a color channel. I assign the sulphur to red, the hydrogen to green, and the oxygen to blue. Then I work on this to bring out the beautiful details and colors. This particular way of mixing the colors is known as the ‘Hubble palette,’ as many of the Hubble images use this convention. I like it because of the blue and gold colors it creates.”

The Hubble palette enables an astrophotographer to reveal details about objects in space that the human eye cannot see. The natural colors of nebulae and galaxies are reflections of the light emitted by various gases. Because many of these colors aren’t visible to the human eye and are relatively similar hues, we wouldn’t be able to distinguish the beautiful and detailed features of deep space objects in an unedited photograph. I think this justifies astrophotographers’ assigning different colors to various wavelengths of lights using the Hubble palette, as it makes the images more aesthetically pleasing and elaborate.

In addition to presenting his work online, Chris has recently started working in a new medium called Galaxy on Glass. “I have spent much of my career in the printing industry so am aware of many printing processes,” Chris said. “But my main driver for working with acrylic, glass, and aluminum was the desire to do something different and something that looked dramatic in an office or home as wall art. There are many good astrophotographers around the world who produce amazing images and some make available posters and such like. I did not want to do this, as I wanted to create something dramatic and something that would have a much higher value. Hence my experiments, and finally products, on glass and acrylic.”

For those interested in trying astrophotography, Chris suggested buying a simple camera for less than 150 dollars, which can be used to photograph the moon and planets — after all, he started with just our solar system! He also suggests attaching a DSLR camera to a telescope, or even trying to use a smartphone to capture images in the telescope’s lens. Perhaps most importantly, he suggests joining a local astronomy society where you can get advice from fellow enthusiasts.

Astrophotography is unknown to many young adults but can be a rewarding and unique passion. Even beyond the act of photographing the sky, it’s important to enjoy the beauty of the world around us. Perhaps, with a sky so boundless and beautiful, no life is truly lived until we spend time immersed in what’s above.

To learn more about Chris Baker’s work, please visit his website.

In a KidSpirit Feature article, teen writer Vanita Sharma interviews astrophotographer Chris Baker and explores how this fascinating field reveals the beauty of our universe.

Astrophotography: Exploring the Universe from Below

Dr. J. Richard Gott

When my granddaughter Allison was born, one of the first things I said to her was “Welcome to the Universe!”

It’s something my co-author Neil deGrasse Tyson has said many times on radio and TV. Indeed it is one of Neil’s signature sayings. When you are born, you become a citizen of the universe. It behooves you to look around, and get curious about your surroundings.

Neil felt a call from the universe on a first visit to the Hayden Planetarium when he was nine years old. As a city kid, he saw for the first time the glories of the nighttime sky displayed on the planetarium dome and decided at that moment to become an astronomer. Today he is the director of that institution.

In fact, we are all touched by the universe. The hydrogen in your body was forged in the birth of the universe itself, while the other elements in your body were made in distant, long-dead stars. When you call a friend on your mobile phone, you should thank astronomers. Mobile phone technology depends on Maxwell’s equations, whose verification depended on the fact that astronomers had already measured the speed of light. The GPS system that tells your phone where you are and helps you navigate, relies on Einstein’s theory of general relativity, which was verified by astronomers measuring the deflection of starlight passing near the Sun. Did you know there is an ultimate limit to how much information can ever be stored in a six-inch-diameter hard drive, and that it depends on black-hole physics? At a more mundane level, the seasons you experience every year depend directly on the tip of Earth’s axis relative to the plane of its orbit around the Sun.

One of the great triumphs of science in the last century was the discovery that the universe is expanding (and that it is 13.8 billion years old). The universe is stranger than you might think. Only 5% of the stuff of the universe is the material found in atoms. Fully 25% is “dark matter,” which is invisible, but whose existence can be inferred from its gravitational effects: holding clusters of galaxies together. It must be in the form of yet-to-be discovered elementary particles. The search is on to discover what they are.

The remaining 70% is “dark energy,” also invisible, but uniformly spread through the vacuum of space. We are used to thinking that a vacuum—empty space—should have a zero energy density. But we have discovered that the vacuum itself appears to have a uniform positive energy density. And if it does, it must have a uniform negative pressure as well, by the logic of Einstein’s theory of relativity. The room you are sitting in has a uniform pressure of 15 pounds per square inch. But you don’t notice it because it is uniform. Pressure differences are required to make the wind blow and knock you over. Since the negative pressure of dark energy is uniform, it exerts no hydrodynamic effects. But according to Einstein, it has gravitational effects, and because the pressure is negative it makes dark energy gravitationally repulsive. This is currently causing the universe to expand faster and faster.

This effect, observed in 1997, garnered the 2011 Nobel Prize in Physics. The Higgs Boson has recently been discovered at the Large Hadron Collider in Europe, bringing us one step closer to the hoped for theory of everything. The standard cosmological model, including normal atoms, dark matter, and dark energy, is now known with exquisite accuracy, thanks to results from the Hubble Space Telescope, the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, and the WMAP and Planck satellites.

The most exotic objects in the universe are black holes. Once you fall inside a black hole, you can never get back out. Astronomers have recently detected gravitational waves (ripples in the geometry of spacetime traveling at the speed of light) emitted when a 29-solar-mass black hole and a 36-solar-mass black hole collided. They coalesced to form a single, rotating 62-solar-mass black hole. Three solar masses worth of mass-energy was released in the form of gravitational radiation via Einstein’s famous formula E = mc2. You may know that this formula shows how a little bit of mass can be converted into a lot of energy, and that it is the secret behind the atomic bomb.

It has been exciting for us as astrophysicists to participate in this burgeoning of astronomical understanding. Neil is well known for his views on demoting Pluto from planetary status, ratified by the International Astronomical Union in a historic vote in 2006. It’s official now: our solar system has the Sun plus 8 planets, as well as asteroids, comets, and many icy bodies called Kuiper-belt objects, of which Pluto is one.

Meanwhile, thousands of new planets have been discovered circling other stars. Neil estimates that there may be as many as 1.8 billion Earthlike planets orbiting other stars within the Milky Way galaxy. How many of these may harbor extraterrestrial civilizations broadcasting in radio frequencies, available for us to detect today? Neil estimates it could be up to a hundred.

My co-author Michael Strauss discovered the most distant quasar known at the time. And I have worked on cosmic strings, the possibilities of time travel to the past in Einstein’s theory of general relativity, as well as how our universe may turn out to be part of an infinite multiverse. How did the universe originate? Are there extra, hidden dimensions? What will be the ultimate fate of the universe? These are questions astrophysicists are currently exploring which take us to the frontiers of physics.

Why is space colonization important, and why should we be doing it now while we have the chance? Will we be wise enough to become a multiplanet species with more chances for survival, or will we remain stranded on tiny Earth until some unfortunate event causes our extinction?

How big is the universe? You know how big a billion is. With a dollar you would be lucky to buy a hamburger. With a billion dollars you would be a billionaire. Shrink the Earth by a factor of a billion and it would be the size of a marble. At that scale—of 1/billion—the Moon would be a BB (1/8th of an inch across) sitting just 15 inches from the blue marble model of Earth. That’s as far as humans have traveled—to the Moon. The Sun would be a 55-inch-diameter beach ball sitting about 500 feet away. On this scale, the next nearest star, Proxima Centauri, would be placed 24,000 miles away. That gives you some idea of the challenges of interstellar travel. The radius of the visible universe, within the range of the Hubble Space Telescope, is indeed enormous, over 3 billion times further away than Proxima Centauri! Our Sun and Proxima Centauri are but two stars out of some 300 billion stars in the Milky Way galaxy. But our galaxy is not alone. There are 130 billion other galaxies within the range of the Hubble Space telescope, each containing over 100 billion stars.

The universe is awesome. This leaves many people thrilled, but feeling tiny and insignificant at the same time. But our aim is to empower you to understand the universe. That should make you feel strong. We have learned how gravity works, how stars evolve, and just how old the universe is. These are triumphs of human thought and observation—things that should make you proud to be a member of the human race.

Excerpted and adapted from Welcome to the Universe: An Astrophysical Tour by Neil deGrasse Tyson, Michael A. Strauss, and J. Richard Gott. Reprinted by permission of the publisher, Princeton University Press.

In a KidSpirit PerSpectives piece, Dr. J. Richard Gott, Professor Emeritus of Asrophysical Sciences at Princeton University, shares his wisdom on the incredible vastness of the universe.

Welcome to the Universe, Next Generation!

William Lohier

Facebook posts be up on my wall. Talking bout how so many brothas been taking the fall, all we gotta do is unite cuz ain’t nothing can put us down. We calling on people from far and wide to join us November Second to March in the memory of Tiara Thomas. Whose crown wasn’t enough to save her as bullets desecrated her body.

In my mind I compose the rhymes that I know will bring tears to the eyes of the people who don’t have time to recognize the tragedy that’s befallen.

“Once again another injustice has been done to the black community . . . ”

“Time and time again we’ve seen the outright discrimination and injustice done to people — ”

“It is a mystery to me how people keep dying and yet there is no change taking place. Once again I — ”

I tell my family about all the Facebook posts I’ve seen

I tell my family how angry I am at what’s been deemed a tragedy

I tell my family how my Facebook post will bring tears to so many eyes.

I realized that night how the mystery of the universe isn’t how people are dying.

It’s how lookin ass brothas and they lookin ass daughters been doing nothing.

bullet has found its way through doors and car doors at poor and poorer

Schoolhouse to jailhouse our babies to prison.

The officer involved in the fatal shooting of “fill in the black” has not been indicted.

Who woulda known the safety net had so many holes in it.

And yet still I sit on my couch and Facebook post my way to sorry for how people been brought up

For how America been brought up with her fat behind sitting on throats choking like nooses to success.

I will kung foo Twitter my way to freedom.

I will Snapchat filter my people to equality.

I will slam poetry my way into every barrel of every gun of every police officer in the United States.

I will #BlackLivesMatter my fist held higher than the birds in the trees,

Higher than Whitney Houston in her bathtub drowning out her pain.

This vicious cycle no one been trying to break

Of wake up 2:00 a.m. Tweet your fears away cuz hey, that’s easier than gettin’ up and doing shit.

Cuz that’s easier than gettin’ up and feeling shit

That’s why these brothas getting paid just to take a hit

Medical marijuana, PTSD these people do anything to get lit

And I wanted to write a poem about space exploration, or high-fives, or smiles.

And it’s the same story they been playing night after night, day after day.

It’s because the people speaking are not the ones who need to be spoken for.

It’s because those with a voice can only voice what’s right for them.

It’s because we not the ones getting shot

It’s because we not the ones doing the shooting.

So how we supposed to fight back, when our backs are under their knees, guns drawn in their imaginations?

The first point of the ten point program says:

We Want Freedom. We Want Power To Determine
The Destiny Of Our Black Community.

But how we supposed be free when we chained to the factory floor making hashtags out of black boys’ names?

You wonder why our parents think our generation is lazy?

It’s because sometimes, when something you worked your whole life to build crumbles to the ground like a burning house, dreams caught up inside, screaming before smoke slicks down their throat like Hennessy, you get bitter.

You get to thinking how America hates you and America has always hated you.

You get to thinking how even if you’ve been one of them your whole life, that was only your point of view.

You get to thinking how Yes Ma’am-ing your way out to get your education so you could make a change in the world only leads to pain when your mama is ashamed that you forgot where you came from. Forgot the language that you had spoken for so long but never remembered. That tendriled out of your mouth as a baby and blossomed off your tongue until you amputated it with the only tools, safety scissors and glue, that your third grade teacher taught you how to use.

When our voice has lost its steel. Lost its grip, lost its black-girl-magic. Sometimes I wish Facebook could solve the problem. That one post could bring tears to everyone’s eyes and just like that America would ensure liberty and justice for all. That the white house would be black and Lady Liberty Latino. But when your voice isn’t being heard you need to speak louder. To shout and shout until you lose your voice then shout some more, because they’ve only defeated you when they can no longer hear you.

So let freedom ring. Let freedom ring from all the mouths of the people that Facebook has coerced into silence. Let freedom ring from our hearts and souls from our mouths as we smile and gasp in the streets, let freedom ring from our fists held high in cold winter’s breath. Let freedom sing from the mouths of our mothers and sisters because we aren’t loud enough. We aren’t proud enough, and nobody, nobody ever got anywhere from sitting down.

In a KidSpirit poem, teen poet William Lohier questions the elusive nature of freedom in the age of social media and Black Lives Matter.

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