I‘ve always been heavily interested in Cosmology and Astronomy. (that is Cosmology, NOT Cosmetology)

When I was just learning to talk I would stare at the moon (which I pronounced “moony”) for long periods of time. My great grandfather would hold me up and I would stretch out my arms trying to touch it.

In my elementary school years my grandfather got me my first telescope and some astronomy magazines. Since we lived in a rural area I had a wonderful view of the stars. I memorized star charts and knew the constellations by heart. Unfortunately I didn’t have any friends with the same interests so I studied on my own. My telescope was powerful enough to see Saturn’s rings. (although it only looked like a yellow dot with one large ring around it, it was still pretty incredible to me) Also, although I could see the moon in great detail I had lost most of my interest in it. I suppose that is a normal reaction after moving on to observe things which are much further away.  

Some of my best childhood memories are of floating on my back in our pool in the middle of the night. It feels like you are in space. I would actually hold onto the pool ladder because I felt like I would fall into the sky. The best time to experience this is during a town-wide power outage!

After a while even my interest in the planets and constellations started to wane. Although the constellations are a useful tool when locating stellar objects they are just arbitrary shapes relative to our place in the universe. The other planets in our solar system just seemed like a collection of dead rocks and typical gas giants. I had much larger questions about the universe but no one to answer them. Unfortunately my education in rural South Carolina was absolute garbage. (although I am thankful to have had any education at all since a lot of the world does not have that luxury) I wanted to read more about Cosmology but this was prior to having Internet access and the subjects were far beyond my local library. My telescope days were cut short after my asshole neighbor got a giant floodlight which he pointed into our yard and refused to take it down.

I recall a night in fifth or sixth grade where I couldn’t sleep and I came up with an idea about how the universe might work. I wrote it down in a notebook and called it “Nicole’s Theory of the Universe” (lol…how cute…) It stated that if the universe is infinite, the best model we have to visualize the universe is by using numbers. If something is infinite then it MUST have repeating patterns, you will always encounter the same things over and over in every possible combination although they may be far apart. Because of this, if you travel far enough away you will encounter a part of the universe exactly like ours again and again. This would include multiple Earths that are the same as ours or slightly different. As a kid I didn’t know about things like spatial dimensions so this was all assuming this would take place in our same physical world, just spaced very far apart. (I also didn’t know what we call “the universe” is only referring to what we can see which is expanding. I thought of the universe as “space that goes on forever”)

Of course I later found out that this idea is not original, it is known as a “level 1” type of Multiverse. However I am still quite impressed with my childhood self.

When I was in high school my mom suggested that I watch “Cosmos” by Carl Sagan. She loved it when she watched it as a kid and she knew that I would enjoy it.

I instantly fell in love with Cosmos. Carl Sagan was absolutely amazing. He described even complex concepts in a way that most people can understand. The order which he presented things and the examples he used are just perfect. I really recommend that anyone with any interest in science and our world should watch it. Even though the show is now so old and out of date I think it is still a great jumping off point to learning about our universe. It explained a lot to me (and in the tradition of science, answers to questions just raise further questions) and even similar series which are more recent (The Universe for example) and still wonderful just don’t compare to Cosmos in my opinion. Cosmos also reignited my interest in our own solar system. It isn’t a bunch of dead rocks at all, it is an amazing place with tons of things we have yet to see and I wouldn’t be surprised if there is simple life on one of the outer planets’ moons. Even our own moon is really amazing. It influences the Earth so much and we probably wouldn’t be here without it. It is HUGE in relation to the size of our planet which is very unusual for a moon and it has an eerie beauty the way it is the perfect distance from our planet to appear the same size as our sun in the sky which gives us those beautiful solar eclipses.

My favorite things to read about now are particle physics and spatial dimensions (specifically four dimensional space). Now thanks to the both wonderful and horrible monster known as the internet I can spend thousands and thousands of hours reading about all types of science without having to actually be a part of that community. Not that I wouldn’t love to be a part of it…! I’m not sure what I could contribute. Maybe someday I will try but for now I am content to just observe.