Stardust in What's Happening

I finished Neil deGrasse Tyson’s book Astrophysics for people in a hurry today (audiobook version). It’s not a topic that I ever thought I would be interested in, but when I listened to a preview of the audiobook I really liked Dr. Tyson’s enthusiasm and his style of narrating. It’s always great when an author reads their own book.

I downloaded it and listened to the first half of it. I was only able to comprehend bits and pieces. I decided to take some crash courses on You Tube on some of the material he was talking about and start the book over again. It’s amazing how much more digestible it was after that.

Tyson has a charming way of reminding us how insignificant it is to be a human in the grand scheme of the universe. The way he explains that all the atoms needed to form human life can be found throughout the universe is a perspective I’ve never really paid much attention to before. One of the most surprising things I learned was that he say’s it’s likely that there are tens of billions of other earth-like planets in the universe that are capable of supporting life. At the end he explains scientifically how hard it would be for alien life-form to visit us; even if they were way more advanced than us in technology.

I’ve been itching to read Charles Darwin’s The origin of species. I have the physical copy, but it’s such a big book. I was thinking about getting the audiobook and trying something a little different where I switch between the two, depending what mood I’m in.

Ten years ago I never would have expected myself now to be such a science nerd / book worm. It just seems like the more you learn the easier things are to understand. All the different science forms start to fit together like a puzzle and it becomes more interesting.

I just got confirmation today that my clear braces will be coming to me in a few weeks. I’m excited to try them. I bought them from an online company for $1300. For that low of a price I wasn’t expecting such good customer service, but the company was great. It’s called AlignerCo. I didn’t even pay for them. I used my HSA debit card and it worked.