wishlist wednesday

Actually, it's just one of many best-wishlist-wednesday-finds-ever, all from an etsy shop called The Science Boutique. My favorite is the Tesla Brooch, but my mind can't even comprehend the amount of awesomeness going on in this store. A close runner-up in the favorites category would be this charm bracelet depicting the evolution illustrations from Carl Sagan's Cosmos. Speaking of my hero, they also have two Carl Sagan brooches and a necklace! Best etsy shop ever? I vote "yes!!!!"

star stuff

I started reading The Dragons of Eden by Carl Sagan last week, and when I saw his cosmic calendar in print I knew it had to be the first Star Stuff post of the year! Sagan had a remarkably brilliant way of illustrating the history of time in a way that you can actually wrap your head around. Think of every single second that has passed since the Big Bang as one single calendar year. The Big Bang is the first second of the first day of January. Humans don't emerge until 10:30PM on December 31st, New Year's Eve! You can click on the image to view it bigger and see all of the different milestones in Earth's history, and when they happened on the cosmic calendar.

star stuff

I know I already featured Carl Sagan's "Pale Blue Dot" on star stuff before, but I was listening to the audiobook last night, and when this passage came on I got the biggest the urge to draw it. Something about this quote just moves me so much, and I wanted to create something that visualized what he was talking about. This pale blue dot, suspended in darkness, is home to everything and everyone we've ever known.

It was so sad though... when I was listening to the book, around chapter 4 Carl Sagan stopped talking and a robotic voice took over. I'm assuming it's because he was so sick he couldn't do it anymore, and that just breaks my heart. I couldn't listen after that. The only reason I was reading the audiobook to begin with was to hear Carl Sagan's inflection and measured, deliberate way of speaking, so I'm going to get the paperback copy and pick up where I left off.

ps. the drawing is available in my society6 shop :)

star stuff

One of my absolute favorite people to follow on twitter is the astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson. This tweet alone made him into my top ten. Anyway, a few weeks ago he tweeted a link to a youtube channel called Minute Physics, which features little one minute illustrated science lessons. Like Tyson and my hero Carl Sagan, the channel makes science approachable without dumbing it down. It's fun, but you definitely walk away knowing something you didn't know before. This video here is probably my favorite (it has cats in it, duh.) but I highly recommend clicking over to their channel and watching every video they've uploaded!

star stuff

Even if you aren't a fan (yet!) of Carl Sagan, you need to watch this video. I've probably heard this 100 times and it still gives me goosebumps. The haunting Cosmos soundtrack in the background makes it even more poignant. I got the album a couple months ago, and I'm looking forward to fall when it'll be nice enough out for me to lie in the backyard at night, with the Cosmos soundtrack on my headphones, just staring at the stars until I fall asleep.

star stuff

I'm obsessed with outer space, science and everything that goes with it. Although my brain isn't wired correctly for a career in science, I still love learning everything about it that I possibly can.. and spend way too much time each week reading science articles, gazing at Hubble photos or looking up old Carl Sagan interviews on youtube (I've concluded that he is officially my favorite person to ever live.) The universe is just so awe-inspiring. I dare you to look at THIS and not get goosebumps..

I want to incorporate my love of science into my blog a bit more, so each week I'm just going to do a little post on Thursday night with a round-up of some of my favorite science photos, artwork, videos and links. I really hope that you enjoy it as much as I do! (All images link back to their source)

a glorious dawn - playlist for april

A still more glorious dawn awaits


Not a sunrise, but a galaxy rise


A morning filled with 400 billion suns


The rising of the milky way

April's playlist is one song, simply because for the last month I've just been listening to this one song on repeat. It's been all consuming.

I found Glorious Dawn on youtube whilst searching for Carl Sagan clips, and immediately fell in love. It's an autotuned song (stick with me.. it's actually good!) using Carl Sagan's voice (with a cameo by Stephen Hawking!) and it's just beautiful. He had such a deliberate, quiet way of speaking, and the words he spoke were often beyond poetic, so his voice is an ideal one to set to music.

One of my favorite things about Carl Sagan was the childlike wonder he retained throughout his entire life. In a documentary I watched recently, "God, the Universe and Everything Else," Sagan laments the way we treat children who ask questions. If a child asks "why is the sky blue?" we're inclined to answer, "just because." or "what color did you expect it to be? yellow?!" when instead we should be explaining to them what we do know, admitting what we don't, and encouraging them to pursue answers to the unknown when they get older. He wanted children to experience the same thrill that he felt exploring the uncharted waters of the world. This enthusiasm that he had for historical, new and future discoveries is what makes Glorious Dawn so beautiful. You can hear that childlike wonderment in his voice, and whether you're listening in broad daylight or in the middle of the night, you'll find yourself staring out your window, gazing at the sky and wondering...

ps. you can buy a 7" vinyl of the song from Third Man Records!

we are star stuff

I can't even begin to describe how much I adore Carl Sagan. I'm a huge fan of his Cosmos series, and probably learned more from watching it than I did during my 12 years of science classes in school. He had such a passion for science and history that you couldn't help but be fascinated by the subjects yourself. In fact, if I wasn't so awfully backwards when it comes to math I'd be ditching the pencils & brushes and picking up a telescope this instant. I wish so badly I could spend my life contemplating the universe, looking at the stars and following in Carl Sagan's footsteps.