Monday, 12 November 2012

Chieko's non-formal academic interests

I'm always interested in astronomy , which was my favorite subject when I was a junior high school student. I bought expensive books filled  with beautiful pictures of stars and planets, and was absorbed in reading and watching them. I stayed up late until midnight so that all neon lights were gone, and I could see a starry sky. I learned many myths in Greek, which tells story of constellations. At high school of course I became a member of astronomy club. Then I found out almost all members were really good at mathematics and physics. To study astronomy, having good knowledge of both subject is essential!! Some of members talked about Einstein's theory of relativity, which was for me just a gibberish. So, I gave up to study astronomy, but I still enjoy watching stars and also imaging when and how human being begin a voyage to the outside of the solar system.
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7 comments:

  1. I got a good idea from your writing.

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  2. Although I was never very excited about actually going out and looking at teh sky, I was interested in astronomy, though more from a physics perspective: how did it come to be and how does it work. I guess because it covers the universe and everything.

    The question of how it came to be really interests me, and lately I've been reading books by physicists like Lawrence Krauss on this topic, which also relates very directly to basic questions in philosophy, which has been my real and lasting interest since I was about 17 years old.

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    1. Some of members of the club were interested in Physics as you were. They recommended Mr. Tompkins in Wonderland to me, which I found very interesting and enjoyed reading, but my grade of physics remainded poor. Many greek philosophers were also scientists, weren't they? I'm wondering if scientiests of the Manhattan Project had been also philosophers, they would have decided to make an atom bomb.

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  3. I also was happy whenever read the myth related the stars. I like to watch stars but in Bangkok I don't
    look at the sky as often as before. How about you?

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    1. In big cities all over the world, it becomes more and more difficult to be free from artificial lights in the night. I'm from Hokkaido, the northern part of Japan, where is sparsely populated, so,if I drive 20 minutes or something, I can get to the place where I can see beautiful sky. Nowadays there are very good planetariums with newest technology. I think such planetarium will be open also in Bangkok in near future, or is already one there?

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  4. I love stars too. When I was in primary school, I dreamed about becoming an astronaut and being among stars in the infinite space. But after I studied more about physics and those kind of things that needed for being and astronaut, my smiley face is replaced by the frown so I decided to position 'astronaut' as my childhood fantasy.:)

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    1. I strongly agree with you! My week point was not only physics but also ability in sports. To become an astronauts, being smart is not enough, people need to have good athletic capacities,too. They are kind of supermen(women)!
      I think in near future it will be possible for ordinary people to go to the space as a tourists. My dream now is to win lotto and get enough money to pay for it. Don't you want to go there,too?

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