Thoughts #9 – Scottish Space School

As you can probably infer from the title of this thoughts post, I was recently notified that I had made a successful application to the Scottish Space School programme. To be accepted onto the programme has been a dream of mine for the past two years as a former student from my school described her intriguing experience.

The Scottish Space School programme is designed for students into Science and currently progressing through the second last year of high school.It is a week-long Space-themed residential at the University of Strathclyde and features a set of lectures given by leading researchers, laboratory activities and workshops supported by NASA astronauts and engineers. On top of that, at the end of the week, 10 students are selected to go visit NASA’s Johnson Space Centre in Houston, Texas.

I am incredibly excited and grateful to have been offered a place and hopefully on the programme I’m able to meet a bunch of like-minded people who are as fascinated about the cosmos as me!

Till next time,

Susan

Thoughts #8 – On NASA’s Exoplanet Discovery ‘Beyond Our Solar System’

Source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/2017/02/22/nasa-announcement-live/

Source: https://twitter.com/EricHolthaus/status/834470207921991682/photo/1?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

I heard the news that NASA was going to announce a breakthrough discovery a couple of days ago and as an astrophysics enthusiast, I was extremely excited.

Today, 22nd February 2017, NASA announces the discovery of seven new exoplanets orbiting a star – Trappist-1 only 40 light years away. Not only is this a record on its own, the content of the discovery is as or more so intriguing. Yes, we are talking about these as planets that could potentially support life. Each and every one of them are rocky resembling the inner four planets within our solar system – Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars, and all have been claimed to have the possibility of supporting liquid water on their surfaces. The discovery is not only astonishing in this essence but also of the fact that Trappist-1 is rather small and dim allowing them to be temperate, thus perhaps be home to life.

Even though only three out of seven of the planets lie within the ‘Goldilocks Zone’ of the star system, this discovery opens up more pathways for interstellar exploration into these worlds, enables further research on their atmospheres and gives us a fairly good chance of looking for clues about life out with Earth.

Till next time,

Susan

 

 

Thoughts #7 -Shakespeare’s portrayal of gender inequality

This post is for the females in this world. I have long heard the stories of girls who were told to stay at home because the best ‘job’ they could ever have was being a housewife. Another told me that her own gran cut off all relations with her as she proceeded to university to achieve her own dreams and ambition. Apparently, this meant there were no school fees left for her younger brother. As much as this is discussed in our daily lives, this is an issue which is prevalent all throughout history. A prime example can be found back in one of the Shakespeare’s work.

Thoughts #5 – The conflicting father-son relationship in All My Sons

Post war America saw the irreversible destruction of millions of families. The damage was caused by war as well as the individuals’ choice to fulfil their duty to society or to one’s family.

In ‘ All My Sons’ by Arthur Miller, the father and son relationship is explored through the typical American household after the Second World War. The protagonist Joe Keller, a businessman, wishes for his son Chris to inherit his business. However his crimes have lead to the deterioration of their relationship.

Thoughts #4 – Going back to Roman times

“Now is the time to proceed to the wonders of Rome, to examine what we have learned over 800 years and to show that we have conquered the world with our buildings too.”

Pliny,XXXVI,101.

In this exert Pliny the elder (Gaius Plinius Secundus), Roman author, naturalist, natural philosopher and also naval and army commander refines the Rome’s view on their capability of presenting their wealth of knowledge though erecting living art. Architecture has the potential to pass on political messages and the splendour, grandeur and opulence of Rome conveyed this to the known world. Pliny also acknowledged the contribution to development by the Romans was almost entirely in the field of practical application. This quote also shows patriotism in Pliny’s tone, by saying the how the knowledge of Rome they are lead the way in transforming the world’s architecture.

Thoughts #3 – The Great ‘Great Gatsby’ Idea

Hello, peeps! I have read and come to love ‘The Great Gatsby’, what was most apparent to me was the corruption of the American Dream which is not as prevalent in the UK. I am also studying the text for English class so I thought I would formulate a few ideas I have into a piece of text. Feel free to share your any of your thoughts on the novel as well down below in the comments section and give this post a big thumbs up!

In the novel “The Great Gatsby” by F.Scott Fitzgerald, the technique of symbolism is vital to the success of the text. The character Nick Carraway recounts his travels to Long Island during the summer of 1922 in order to make sense of the events he witnessed due to the corruption of the American Dream.

Fitzgerald utilises the title of the novel, ‘ The Great Gatsby” to symbolize the hollowness of Jay Gatsby, the enigmatic man who hosts lavish parties in the less fashionable West Egg. The title is a moniker of a showman, a magician whose acts deceives the audience. Thus Gatsby’s background which he has created for himself is founded on dishonesty. His greatness is measure by capital, albeit through criminal means as a bootlegger.

Thoughts #2 – Talks, Lectures and Time Travel

On Wednesday I – with some other students who expressed an interest in pursuing engineering – attended a talk by a civil engineer. Essentially it was just a talk about his life and some big projects he was involved in, e.g the London 2012 velodrome. I found it rather dull since it focused on civil more than anything else. Was never extremely interested in the engineering discipline so not being fully engaged with the talk isn’t a surprise. Well he’s a civil engineer after all – though he is an Imperial College London graduate which was cool.

Though in contrast I also attended one of the Gifford Lectures held in Glasgow University recently in which the speaker was Caltech Professor Sean Carroll and it was a pretty interesting experience. Carroll spoke about ideas that were mainly based around entropy and his book “The Big Picture”. I was gutted that I could not make any of the other lectures in the series – because of overwhelming amounts of school work of course – but Sean Carroll’s lectures are definitely worth checking out and the inside of Glasgow University was stunning.

Obviously I need to go back to talking about Physics class today. We started Special Theory of Relativity yesterday and I could not enjoy it more. It was incredibly amusing to see all the astonished faces while my teacher was explaining time dilation. And how approaching the speed of light you could theoretically travel into the future but sadly not the past. My classmates’ reactions and sense of denial were absolutely remarkable. You don’t know how much I love watching bewildered reception to physics phenomena!

Till next time,

Susan

 

Thoughts #1 – Higher Physics Notes

Just a short thoughts post. These may be regular and spontaneous 😊

So as a high school student I am extremely excited to have received the second part of the Dynamic Universe notes today for the Higher Physics course – which has a very pretty image of the Crab Nebula taken by the Hubble on the front cover – that covers most of the theoretical sections of the first unit.

We are finally on the cosmology and astrophysics element of the course after doing months of motion equations. I had a skim through the notes and it’s looking like it’s going to be a fun journey. Amazing feeling when the Scottish Qualifications Authority think you’ve enough maths knowledge to include a little of the exciting physics e.g. Relativity. Though because of our still limited mathematical knowledge, we’ve barely touched to surface. Long way to go, high school physics!

Have a nice day,
Susan

*These are not standard weekly blog posts, just spontaneous thought asides.