Newton's Principia Mathematica set us free.Does the fact that most of us know the names of mass murderers but never heard of Jan Oort say anything about us?.It discusses the development of early astronomy from the human propensity for pattern recognition, comets as omens, Edmond Halley, Robert Hooke and Isaac Newton, gravity, Newton's seminal book, Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica, and Halley's Comet. When Knowledge Conquered Fear is about the importance of mathematics in science. Third Episode: When Knowledge Conquered Fear īabe Ruth in 1916 - "Like Babe Ruth predicting where his next home run would land in the stands, Halley stated flatly the comet would return." (Episode 3). The only shame is to pretend that we have all the answers.
We're not afraid to admit what we don't know. Science works on the frontier between knowledge and ignorance.They might use acetylene instead of sugar as an energy source. And exhale methane instead of carbon dioxide. There might be creatures that inhale hydrogen instead of oxygen. the seas and the rain are made not of water but of methane and ethane. (While standing near the as-yet-unnamed, sixth corridor in the "Halls of Extinction.") That nameless corridor? That's for another day.Accepting our kinship with all life on Earth is not only solid science, in my view, it's also a soaring spiritual experience. The Theory of Evolution, like the Theory of Gravity, is a scientific fact.And it's written in a language that all life can read. If life has a sanctuary, it's here in the nucleus, which contains our DNA - the ancient scripture of our genetic code.It describes the use of artificial selection to create dogs from wolves, the natural selection of polar bears from brown bears, the tree of life, the evolution of eyes, the "Halls of Extinction", tardigrades, the possibility of life on Titan, and the earliest life on Earth. Some of the Things That Molecules Do is about biology, primarily evolution.
Cosmos a spacetime odyssey 2014 code#
Second Episode: Some of the Things That Molecules Do Ī DNA molecule - "ur genetic code written in a language that all life can read." (Episode 2). It's the passing of a torch from teacher to student to teacher a community of minds reaching back to antiquity, and forward to the stars.
Cosmos a spacetime odyssey 2014 series#
Standing Up in the Milky Way is the series introductory episode. On June 9th, it will also air on National Geographic (USA and Canada) with bonus content during the commercial breaks.The Crab Nebula was created by a supernova - "You, me, everyone: we are made of star stuff." (Episode 1). If you have any questions about the science you see in tonight's episode, r/AskScience will have a thread where you can ask their panelists anything about its science! Along with r/AskScience, r/Space, r/Television, and r/Astronomy have their own threads. It savors the fact that even bigger mysteries, mysteries like dark energy, await us.
This awareness is the humility that distinguishes science from other human activities. All those billions of galaxies, all those stars, planets and moons-they amount to a meager 4 per cent of what really awaits out there. We know less now about the universe than educated Europeans did before the discovery of the Americas. Episode 13: "Unafraid of the Dark" - June 8 on Fox / June 9 on NatGeo US