I'm about to start week 7 out of 11 of Spring Quarter here at UCSC.
I just got back from an amazing camping trip with my Marine Botany class to collect Algae/Seaweed to press for our final projects. It was one of the most surreal and fun experiences I have had here yet! We went camping in the Plaskett Creek Campground in Big Sur. We left around 4 on Friday and made it just in time to go hike up to the top to see the sunset. We played some nerdy Phycology Pictionary (Phyctionary) then we woke up at 5 am to hike down the beach to collect algae. Being that tired, that early, in such a beautiful place was nothing short of a moving experience. I got some great samples, and I'll definitely be posting up the *hopefully* beautiful pressings I get out of it. (After its done stinking up my fridge).
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| Yep, California is pretty awesome. |
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| A good view to wake up to! |
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| Beautiful sunset! |
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| My classmates waiting for Phyctionary! |
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| 6 AM pre-sunrise fog |
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| Algae Collection |
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| Beautiful! |
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| This Kelp Crab was hiding in my kelp and almost went home with me! |
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| Nereocystis & Ulva species. |
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| A mini Island. |
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| Sunrise on the Beach |
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| The climb back to Camp. |
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| Above the fog! |
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| Just in case you wanted to see the most ridiculous curve ever... |
In other news, its been a pretty stressful quarter, which has included a lot of job searching for internships (I got called back for another Interview with CCFRP, so keep your fingers crossed) and looking for a house. I think I've definitely learned the 'don't live with your best friends' lesson and am excited to hopefully be living on my own next quarter.
Alright, so some cool stuff:
-For anybody who has ever dealt with someone with depression. This is a great description of what having depression is like. It's actually not what most people expect and can help us understand why a depressed person is behaving like they are. This blogger has also written some pretty hilarious posts about what its like to have a dog, be a kid, etc. She draws small cartoons in Microsoft Paint that are some of the funniest things I have ever read, so if you have to time to be entertained check them out here, here, and here.
-I had an interesting conversation with my dad recently about evolution of life and its definitely a big one. You don't have to read this, but for anyone who's interested, I like talking about this stuff so feel free to give me your opinion. I feel like I should definitely warn you first that I'm sure some of the stuff I'm saying is oversimplified or wrong, my own opinion, what have you, but this is, in its very nature, a fuzzy and uncertain debate no matter your religious ideology.
So I'm going to start off by saying that Evolution is a fact. The science of biology falls apart if you don't accept evolution. It just exists, there's no debate. Science has proved it. (And don't tell me you don't "believe in science" because the definition of Science is as follows: "knowledge, as of facts or principles; knowledge gained by systematic study." Therefore, if you trusted science to make your aspirin and make your car, you trust it completely, because science is how humans accumulate facts).
The next thing I'm going to state is that chemistry is essentially physics. Your body works because the molecules (proteins, nucleic acids, and carbohydrates) work the way they do because they rely on their physical structure. A lot of it involves attraction (think magnets), hydrophobic/hyrdrophilic interaction (think how water/oil separate naturally), and puzzle-like combinations of these.
Okay so I'll basically tell you a story of where the molecules in your body came from.
After the big bang or whatever created the universe, you were entirely composed of Hydrogen atoms. We (as in all life, the earth, the sun, everything) were floating around as giant Nebula clouds of hydrogen. (To give you perspective, those pillars in the link are each larger than our entire solar system - roughly 10,500,000,000 kilometers or 700 earth to sun distances (AU)). We floated around for millions to billions of years until we spun and created our own gravity, collapsing into a giant star. That star, through nuclear fusion (essentially billions of atomic bombs), fused Hydrogen into Helium, Helium into Carbon, Oxygen, Iron, Silicon, etc. Or we possibly would've come from multiple stars that were very close together in a multi-star system. In any event we eventually caused the star to collapse and supernova.
Our atoms then condensed out into planetary nebula (basically nebula made up of things other than Hydrogen, and small enough to not form a secondary star). After a long time of cooling and radiation, this nebula again started to spin and collapse under its own gravity. Large portions of Hydrogen condensed and ignited into our Sun and other elements condensed to form the Earth and the other planets. Watch this. Once again we know this because of the laws of physics and chemistry, applied to the elements in our solar system and also by watching other stars forming.
After the Earth formed, it went through many stages of Atmosphere, varying amounts of water, etc, but eventually was left with a stormy and volcanic earth that had liquid water. Through all of these storms and volcanic activity, the components of life began to form. (As in, your cells' little individual parts aka the Lego pieces). We know this is a fact because we were able to synthesize these Lego pieces ourselves through this experiment.
Now, here is the fuzzy part. Given what we know of the physical behavior of these lego pieces, we know that some of them will automatically combine (think oil/water) - this is the behavior of your cell walls. We also know that some of these other Lego pieces like each other. Things like proteins. These proteins, also through the water/oil effect, would've become lodged within the cell wall and possibly would've started filtering things inside of the cell. Given that nucleic acids also readily combine (Not into DNA, but into it's ancestors). At some point the right proteins happened to interact with the right nucleic acids and eventually a coding DNA-like-system was born.
Basically what all of this means is that the difference between life and not life at this point is very fuzzy. There is no clear first instant of life. Given a few million years this system became orderly and the first Bacteria were formed. After a billion years, the first photo-synthesizers killed off most other life with its toxic waste product Oxygen. Basic cells adapted to consume other cells and they evolved into more complex and multi-celled 'animals'. We all know the basic rest of the story. This is the study of Biology.
What's the take home message here? (aka the TL;DR - aka 'too long; didn't read' synopsis for those who aren't internet savvy.)
Given the circumstances and proportions of the elements on earth. The components of life and the basic cell had to form. The laws of physics and chemistry demand it. The room for argument comes in when you ask why we evolved the way we did. The dominant life forms on earth very easily would've been reptilian had there not been a giant meteor. Evolution deals with random cards dealt when there is an error in the DNA. Much like the game of cribbage. You are dealt random cards, but you decide which ones are most likely to allow you to win.
SO:
Is there life on other planets? yes.
Is it anything like ours? It's possibly made up of the same things, but it probably did not result in a humanoid.
Is there a creationist god? Depends on your definition of god. I'd say no. It is my opinion that it's much more likely that man created god, than god created man.
Doesn't a godless existence mean our lives are bleak, unguided, ending without afterlife? Possibly. I'd say that the reason the concept of god exists is because of human's evolved fear of dying and need for guidance.
However let me posit this to you:
If someone aka god directed this whole thing - it sets you in amazement of that being. Your life is essentially meaningless because of your infinite afterlife. Think about it: you would forget this entire lifetime if you had an afterlife because compared to infinite time 75+/- years is nothing.
Whereas if nobody is directing this and it happened by chance: it sets you in amazement of the world. This 75+/- years is everything. Your life is everything. Every second is infinitely more meaningful because its part of a limited number.
The latter is my opinion. It's also very possible that there exists something in between, where your consciousness becomes part of the universe again in some way, but I doubt we would still be recognizable versions of ourselves with memories and ideologies, but instead a dreamlike point of consciousness that is the universe.
Carl Sagan has summed up everything I just wrote best. "We are a way for the cosmos to know itself."
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