The Martian, by Andy Weir (A GEEK WIN)

GEEK. WIN. You hear me?? Here's the Amazon blurb:

Six days ago, astronaut Mark Watney became one of the first people to walk on Mars. 
Now, he's sure he'll be the first person to die there.
After a dust storm nearly kills him and forces his crew to evacuate while thinking him dead, Mark finds himself stranded and completely alone with no way to even signal Earth that he’s alive—and even if he could get word out, his supplies would be gone long before a rescue could arrive. 
Chances are, though, he won't have time to starve to death. The damaged machinery, unforgiving environment, or plain-old "human error" are much more likely to kill him first. 
But Mark isn't ready to give up yet. Drawing on his ingenuity, his engineering skills—and a relentless, dogged refusal to quit—he steadfastly confronts one seemingly insurmountable obstacle after the next. Will his resourcefulness be enough to overcome the impossible odds against him?

This book caught me by the ear lobes, it was that good! Usually they catch me by the throat, which is a much bigger target. If you're a space-nerd like me and you have not read this book, you are seriously missing out. I got it on my Kindle and on my Kindle I stayed... through school, night-time, and a host of important activities that I probably should have been paying attention to. BUT IT WAS WORTH IT. Here's why:

From the very first sentence, I felt the raw energy of the novel (you'll see what I'm talking about if you decide to read it -- but beware if you don't like cussing). I was thrown right into the action and dragged along at a crazy and deliberately stressful pace. It was fascinating to see the incredibly detailed and ingenious way Mark Watney solves the problems that Mars throws at him on a daily (or sol-ly) basis. All the while, his sass-reflex makes him the most entertaining astronaut I've ever read.

At the end of the book, I was a sad space-nerd. The ride of my riveting life (haha) was over, and I could no longer drown myself in its hostile environments and sizzling sarcasm. More than ever before, I wanted to meet this astronaut guy. He would be a fun person to talk to.

I also wanted to go to Mars, but you know, that probably won't happen till I'm fifty. Right?

4.3 / 5

Calculating the Center of the Universe

I watched Interstellar for the fourth time today - hence the geeky title of this post! It is definitely my favorite movie of all time, simply because it makes me think.


What are we doing here, on this tiny little planet, scattered amongst a sea of stardust? Why not abandon silly little constructs like currency and wealth and pool our resources to pursue the beauty and adventure that nature has to offer?


Yeah, I know, there are a lot of reasons why that can't happen, but I still wish it was possible. I want to experience another planet - just think of it! Our Earth is so beautiful, but it's one of trillions of planets in our universe. (cue Cooper's line: "this world's a treasure, Donald, but it's been telling us to leave for a while now"). There's so much out there to find if only people were motivated by passion rather than greed.


Anyway, semi-random thought: where is the center of our universe? Where did this supposed "Big Bang" begin? It seems like a discovery of utmost significance, possibly bordering on spirituality, would be waiting there in the place where existence began.


Doing some quick research, I found that scientists really have no clue whether there's a center to the universe. In fact, many think there isn't one. Apparently, no matter where you are in space, it always looks like the stars are moving away from you. That sounds kind of confusing, but it can be explained (or at least speculated on) by looking at a balloon.


Take any old balloon. With a marker, draw some dots on the surface. Maybe ten or so. As you inflate the balloon, the dots will all move away from each other.


So it's like the surface of that balloon... only in 3D. Hurts my brain.


Just a thought-experiment:


Imagine we could build a machine that could sense all the mass in the universe and accurately map it on a sphere. The readings might look like this:

(most yellow = least mass, most red = most mass)
The "reddest" region is in the direction of the center of the universe.

And if we sent a probe out, say, a light-year or so, we'd have two overlapping readings which might look like:

(Probe's readings + the line from Earth)
With two lines, we have an intersection in 2D space, and a more accurate estimation.

 This process would be repeated with at least two more probes to essentially triangulate the center of the universe in 3D space, the same way your phone can be triangulated with four or more satellites (although I don't have a diagram for that one - my Photoshop skills end here).

Of course, such a machine is undeniably impossible right now - our means of calculating masses and velocities of galaxies are rough and usually "ball-park" estimates. But still... I have these weird thoughts sometimes... That's what watching sci-fi does to me - I can't help it. For now, I'll just have to be content with my mother's sarcastic statement: "Drew, everyone knows that the center of the universe is YOU." Yeaahhh... thanks mom, I guess.