#astrobiology is so cool

[elisartstuff]

You'd never believe who spent almost 2 hours redrawing a frame instead of doing something like schoolwork. except I legit did not know how to make bh interesting. eli stick to a DESIGN.

Anyways yeah I just wanted to redraw my tumblr banner so I could have smth of my own instead of like. a screenshot. explodes epicly I need to hyperfixate on smth that ISNT them

[writeouswriter]

Already made similar post but I want to create scientist OCs so badly, but don't want to look deeply into different branches of science to figure out which one they should specialize in because I've been in a wikipedia rabbit hole of sciences, some of which I didn't even know existed, for days now and yet I have absorbed none of the information nor come closer to a conclusion, Carlos, give me strength, you're all just gonna be last name the scientist, you're specializing in the science of science, I swear, aahhh

[opens-up-4-nobody]

...

[vaguelyinterestingidiot]

Wildly speculative ideas about aliens by someone with no basis in astrobiology, an idiot made guide to the search for alien life (and maybe the state of science as a whole idk)

I have no idea how I'm supposed to rebuke all of the arguments I've heard on extra terrestrial locating when I have absolutely no idea what I'm talking about and even sound half an ounce of coherent. I kinda just sprang out of bed, started browsing memes, and booked a ticket directly off the deep end of sanity boarding now. The fringe religious groups make it look so easy. I guess we'll start with a list of things that seem funny to me in the form of insane ranting. This is tumblr, after all.

1

I saw a meme earlier that really jumpstarted the whole "I'm going the genderfluidly mansplain all of space" thing. Observe, bear witness, and oh wait I don't have the image downloaded. Essentially it was a joke about creatures in the ocean assuming that because there's no thermal heat vents (chemical soup, hot and fresh, not referencing any funny video here absolutely not at all I swearrrrr) that there would be no way of life existing on the surface of the ocean.

That raises an interesting question though. Why do we only look for planets that are getting their sunlight soup-kitchen on? Why aren't we looking at like, super dense planets? This of course, is assuming that I am actually even a little bit correct to assume a more dense planet core (gravity or whatever idk) would make it warmer inside. Why aren't we talking about fungus that eats tragically exploded nuclear reactors in Eastern (relative to the USA and also assuming you don't just. Go around west instead. that is. earth is a little bit of a shape that has more than one direction to go in.) countries? I believe I heard those called radiotrophs. Why not other sources of energy? What about a species or an entire ecosphere that has a main basis in eating sound waves generated by star explosions or something?

2

I think our definition of life is too narrow. There, I said it. I think that in the whole conquest to describe everything in a neat little category (also you're not getting out of this one either Protista, I'm coming for you next you filing cabinet of things that aren't even like, at all categorizable by our other arbitrary categories) we have absolutely thrown out the idea of science as a whole. The idea that we can just say for absolute certain "These are the categories, read em and weep" and never ever question that even a little bit, well that's not very scientific now is it. Sure, experiments are repeatable if done right, but that's assuming ALL variables relevant held constant, and I don't think there's much of anything less constant than all known life at all. Why do we assume that we can just look at a virion, turn up our noses and go "NOT CELLS!!!1!111!!! DISQUALIFIIIIIIED!" when that's clearly not a living thing by our dumb dichotomy situation, but like. It's also not just a cluster of obsidian or something either.

The whole idea that life is only a very specific thing, and one based exactly on how it is here on the surface of Earth too for that matter, is a little dumb when your entire field is literally "let's find something we've never seen before yay!" and then you deny it even is real once you find it. We need to be looking at space generally just asking "huh, what's that? why is it doing that?" and not going "NOT LIFE GET OUTTA HERE DON'T CARE DIDN'T ASK!".

Expanding the parameters isn't really the answer here in my opinion either. Even if you go from categorizing all bouncy balls as being painted red to all bouncy balls as being painted, you're still disregarding the entire existence of any bouncy ball that doesn't have a shiny coat of paint. You're refusing to even acknowledge "Ah cool, that's a weird thing that isn't say, the average jumping rope! We should look at it some more!" with the analogy here being known existence as playground toys, living things being red bouncy balls and nonliving things being jumping ropes.

3

Overspecialization is ruining the search for aliens. Picture this, you're a person tasked with describing society, the human race, and all of its social nuances, let's say, an anthropologist. Sure, you probably don't need a PHD in women's studies Robotnik style, but you're gonna have one hell of a time convincing people you've reached the answer to anything at all if you've never heard of women. Argue all you like about what the definition of a woman is politically, scientifically, or anything else, but if you don't even have any sort of awareness that such a configuration of a human could exist, how are you even gonna scratch the surface of a good chunk of history, or social structure, or anything else for that matter? I mean hell, even the basic idea that male and female humans can have their cells combined to create an offspring goes out the window without that basic idea of "hmm this thing is not exactly the same in every single way to this other thing I'm looking at. I'm gonna categorize and say that nothing else outside of these categories exists. Anything nonbinary in gender or intersex in physical form can go over there and sit nicely in the corner."

The very idea only people who have studied enough are qualified to look for something, and that once you reach your ability to be qualified to look for it, that you just know more than anyone else about it by default... Why? Sure, Muay Thai instructors probably don't all know how to bake bread, and not all professional bread baking legends know how to apply full body force to knock someone down. but there's definitely intersection. Two vastly unrelated things both depend on very similar skills and concepts. I can easily see someone from a classroom (I don't know the exact appropriate word. Dojo? Gym? Classroom works I hope.) on how to hand someone their rear end showing a baker how to maximize bread kneading based on force applied, and then that baker teaching the same guy that sometimes you have to let the dough rest and rise. That when in the process of whooping butt, sometimes you need the peace to let things come into motion on their own.

Just because you don't know everything doesn't automatically mean you also know nothing. In fact, that very idea is probably how you get so many people claiming they know everything about everything, because they are not validated to join the conversation otherwise. They're not asked "why do you think this works like this?" not in a sort of teaching manner where one person assumes to know the ultimate answer and will tell the novice they're wrong and that THIS is the correct truth, but more rather to gain perspective and fuel the ability to think about things outside of your own little bubble of professionals who all learned in more or less the same way and probably lose sleep at night over similar questions. Even if someone asks a question that you find so profoundly stupid to even consider like "what if the aliens haven't come to earth because they're all lactose intolerant and they're abducting cows to cure themselves" why can't you sit and think about it for a moment? Construct an argument? Hell, if you're lucky, think deeply enough about it that you have an epiphany on something not quite the same but it got the cogs turning anyway? What if you even, maybe by some stroke of insanity and disregard for all preconceived notions, found that they might actually have a point?

Isn't it kind of the picture of scientific achievement to be that one dude who everyone is shouting at for even suggesting that the earth isn't flat, or that maybe we should stop using asbestos in everything?

4

You have simply lost your sense of wonder. To explain everything in perfect detail in a world where perfection is paradoxical, why are you trying to chemically synthesize the emotion humans define as joy in your neurons that fire into an uncaring void while your blood that was never your own carries these signals originally meant to keep your soon to be corpse and then even sooner after cosmic dust, or a bit of a dog who ate some grass, or a puff of carbon dioxide out of a tailpipe of some yet to come new great civilization's machines? What end are we trying to achieve here? It is generally known, or at least, I would assume it is given my own experiences, that immortality would be one hell of a curse. If the knowledge of everything circling right back around to nothing didn't do you in, the grief of everything you know being no more and everything you don't becoming some mix of normal would. Don't get me wrong, we should absolutely be trying to cure sickness and perfect the fine science of the prettiest song and find new ways to reinvent wheels that have been turning longer than we've known ourselves around to question them, but why? If you lose your wonder, your purpose, that thing that drives every great scientist in their childhood to look up to the stars or down at the bugs on the ground with a sense of astonishment, if we replace it with the cold clinical need to understand EVERYTHING EXACTLY HOW IT IS AND ALWAYS WILL BE then why do it at all? Why cure sickness if you can't suffer from it? Why bother to make the most beautiful piece of music anyone has ever heard if nobody, not even the composer, can stop and feel the sway of their head bobbing along? You say you've grown up, but no. I say you've grown bitter and jaded and disconnected yourself for the very purpose of connecting deeper. Why even find extra terrestrial life if we're just going to chuck them into the Protista junk drawer and move on to the next stranger civilization? What motivation could someone have to stare deeply into the profoundly unknown if they had some certainty it would ever be fully understood?

Research is amazing, it's great. I love being able to open my magic big rectangle that contains the artic winds and pull out a tub of ice cream at a whim. It's so great that we have the advancements, and I'd reckon we should make more, but why bother if the only thing that will satisfy you is ALL of the advancements? What sort of science are you going to achieve doing a completionism run of the universe itself and not sitting and enjoying what you discovered? Probably not fridges. Maybe not even bombs. At that point, you're doomed to spiral into a depression and give up the search for the ETs and Spocks of the universe entirely. Why?

IN SUMMARY (or maybe not)

I had some other points to make about things to do with finding aliens but here I go again finding my own philosophical thoughts and loss of meaning spiral and whatever. I particularly like absurdism, the direct opposition to nihilism's "why?". The ability to go "why not?". I have sort of run out of steam on the intense frantic questions and trying to show people a different way, the exact thing that this whole post says you shouldn't be doing anyway, so I'm gonna go have a pudding cup. Enjoy life, look for aliens, take the stick out of your ass, have a nice day.

[payingjayz]

tree and his cosmic entity bf

theyre ship name is astrobiology oh my god thats so cool (thank you tumblr user @ leepotp)

[scifigeneration]

Carl Sagan’s scientific legacy extends far beyond ‘Cosmos’

by Jean-Luc Margot, Professor of Earth, Planetary, and Space Sciences at the University of California, Los Angeles

On Nov. 9, 2024, the world will mark Carl Sagan’s 90th birthday – but sadly without Sagan, who died in 1996 at the age of 62.

Most people remember him as the co-creator and host of the 1980 “Cosmos” television series, watched worldwide by hundreds of millions of people. Others read “Contact,” his best-selling science fiction novel, or “The Dragons of Eden,” his Pulitzer Prize-winning nonfiction book. Millions more saw him popularize astronomy on “The Tonight Show.”

What most people don’t know about Sagan, and what has been somewhat obscured by his fame, is the far-reaching impact of his science, which resonates to this day. Sagan was an unequaled science communicator, astute advocate and prolific writer. But he was also an outstanding scientist.

Sagan propelled science forward in at least three important ways. He produced notable results and insights described in over 600 scientific papers. He enabled new scientific disciplines to flourish. And he inspired multiple generations of scientists. As a planetary astronomer, I believe such a combination of talents and accomplishments is rare and may occur only once in my lifetime.

Scientific accomplishments

Very little was known in the 1960s about Venus. Sagan investigated how the greenhouse effect in its carbon dioxide atmosphere might explain the unbearably high temperature on Venus – approximately 870 degrees Fahrenheit (465 degrees Celsius). His research remains a cautionary tale about the dangers of fossil fuel emissions here on Earth.

Sagan proposed a compelling explanation for seasonal changes in the brightness of Mars, which had been incorrectly attributed to vegetation or volcanic activity. Wind-blown dust was responsible for the mysterious variations, he explained.

Sagan and his students studied how changes to the reflectivity of Earth’s surface and atmosphere affect our climate. They considered how the detonation of nuclear bombs could inject so much soot into the atmosphere that it would lead to a yearslong period of substantial cooling, a phenomenon known as nuclear winter.

With unusual breadth in astronomy, physics, chemistry and biology, Sagan pushed forward the nascent discipline of astrobiology – the study of life in the universe. Together with the research scientist Bishun Khare at Cornell University, Sagan conducted pioneering laboratory experiments and showed that certain ingredients of prebiotic chemistry, called tholins, and certain building blocks of life, known as amino acids, form naturally in laboratory environments that mimic planetary settings.

He also modeled the delivery of prebiotic molecules to the early Earth by asteroids and comets, and he was deeply engaged in the biological experiments onboard the Mars Viking landers. Sagan also speculated about the possibility of balloon-shaped organisms floating in the atmospheres of Venus and Jupiter.

His passion for finding life elsewhere extended far beyond the solar system. He was a champion of the search for extraterrestrial intelligence, also known as SETI. He helped fund and participated in a systematic search for extraterrestrial radio beacons by scanning 70% of the sky with the physicist and electrical engineer Paul Horowitz.

He proposed and co-designed the plaques and the “Golden Records” now affixed to humanity’s most distant ambassadors, the Pioneer and Voyager spacecrafts. It is unlikely that extraterrestrials will ever find these artifacts, but Sagan wanted people to contemplate the possibility of communication with other civilizations.

Carl Sagan, offering his unique commentary in a scene from ‘Cosmos.’

Advocacy

Sagan’s scientific output repeatedly led him to become an eloquent advocate on issues of societal and scientific significance. He testified before Congress about the dangers of climate change. He was an antinuclear activist and spoke out against the Strategic Defense Initiative, also known as “Star Wars.” He urged collaborations and a joint space mission with the Soviet Union, in an attempt to improve U.S.-Soviet relations. He spoke directly with members of Congress about the search for extraterrestrial intelligence and organized a petition signed by dozens of prominent scientists urging support for the search.

Carl Sagan, speaking out against the use of nuclear weapons, at the Great Peace March in 1986. Visions of America LLC/Corbis via Getty Images

But perhaps his most important gift to society was his promotion of truth-seeking and critical thinking. He encouraged people to muster the humility and discipline to confront their most cherished beliefs – and to rely on evidence to obtain a more accurate view of the world. His most cited book, “The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark,” is a precious resource for anyone trying to navigate this age of disinformation.

Impact

A scientist’s impact can sometimes be gauged by the number of times their scholarly work is cited by other scientists. According to Sagan’s Google Scholar page, his work continues to accumulate more than 1,000 citations per year.

Indeed, his current citation rate exceeds that of many members of the National Academy of Sciences, who are “elected by their peers for outstanding contributions to research,” according to the academy’s website, and is “one of the highest honors a scientist can receive.”

Sagan was nominated for election into the academy during the 1991-1992 cycle, but his nomination was challenged at the annual meeting; more than one-third of the members voted to keep him out, which doomed his admission. An observer at that meeting wrote to Sagan, “It is the worst of human frailties that keeps you out: jealousy.” This belief was affirmed by others in attendance. In my opinion, the academy’s failure to admit Sagan remains an enduring stain on the organization.

No amount of jealousy can diminish Sagan’s profound and wide-ranging legacy. In addition to his scientific accomplishments, Sagan has inspired generations of scientists and brought an appreciation of science to countless nonscientists. He has demonstrated what is possible in the realms of science, communication and advocacy. Those accomplishments required truth-seeking, hard work and self-improvement. On the 90th anniversary of Sagan’s birth, a renewed commitment to these values would honor his memory.

[starshower1215]

AOT Veterans: Modern AU HCs

Hange would learn a lot about engineering and building stuff. They'd have the messiest garage full of tools for metal fabrication, welding, woodworking. They'd also have the oldest car to have ever existed, a comically unreliable one in fact, and perhaps one that they'd bought cheap and fixed up themself.

The oldest car and then a motorcycle they share with Mike. The motorcycle is probably old, too, though.

Erwin would work as a private investigator. He has the intelligence and intuition for such things, and I think he would truly enjoy the challenges of analyzing clues and fitting pieces of information together. He'd be able to utilize his ability to be one step ahead very thoroughly.

Hange probably went to university or is in university, studying something crazy cool like astrobiology. I think they would love astrobiology, actually, considering the incredible number of layers of science you'd need to learn to major in something so complicated.

Erwin loves to sit down with Hange and listen to them drone on and on about what they're learning. He is probably the only one who does, but he just loves the idea that they aren't alone on Earth, that life could be out there somewhere even if we don't see or know it yet. They love theorizing about aliens, wondering late at night if they have eyes or if they have senses that humans don't, if they can detect dark matter or not. The two of them can stay up the whole night like this.

In all universes, Levi works in a cafe. He likely didn't attend school, or didn't pay attention much because his family was in debt due to his mother's medical bills. He had bigger problems, but he does enjoy his life in a cafe.

Nanaba works as a hairdresser. She just really loves the feeling when she brings out an entirely new side of a person, or encourages them be more like themselves. She finds it to be a very caring job, and she loves when her customers leave the shop satisfied with a fresh new style.

She struggles with money a little bit because she gave up wealth in favor of pursuing something she likes.

Nanaba definitely does not accept help when it comes to finances, though, no matter how much her friends offer it to her. She's stubborn, and everyone knows it. So some days, Mike will invite her out to eat with him to spare her the trouble of dinner. It's a win-win, too, because he likes her a lot.

Levi only takes taxis. He doesn't like to drive or bike or take the bus, especially not the bus due to its unclean environment. He also carries sprayable hand sanitizer around, along with a tube of Lysol wipes. He offers Lysol wipes and hand sanitizer for free at his cafe because he always appreciates when they have such things available in public. They just sit on the counter, ready for usage.

Hange is always studying at Levi's cafe on the weekends. Sometimes they drag Nanaba along to sit there with them. Levi gives Nanaba a free muffin purely out of bias, then makes Hange pay for whatever they want to eat.

But he secretly gives them a discount.

Maybe Mike works as a health coach. Not sure where this one came from, but he has the motivation and the attitude for it. He's the therapy friend of the group, but with less emphasis on emotion and more emphasis on finding the solutions.

Mike always wears athletic clothes.

The five of them have a five-way dinner date type of thing, where they meet up at the end of every week, at one of their houses usually, to cook together, eat food, play music and games, watch movies, and just unwind and have a fun time. A lot of weeks, they'll make a party out of it. The five of them will invite the others: Nifa, Moblit, Petra, Oluo, Eld, Gelgar, and other obscure characters.

It is here that Levi, Petra, and Nanaba often don their matching sweatpants (there's another post about this)

The veterans may also get drunk, depending on who it is. It's a given for Gelgar, but Levi has shown preferences for tea.

Usually, they all sleep on the floor together, or split the house into the bedrooms and the sofas. Erwin and Mike are big, so they hog beds all to themselves. The rest of them make do; Nanaba and Eld make pillow forts on the carpet and camp there while Hange sprawls out to the side, and Levi and Petra stuff themselves into the crevices because they're small.

[chowmoon2]

I like to think Final Bosses of Kirby personally name their attacks

So whatever I see Fecto Elfilis/Chaos Elfilis attack names which are always based on astrobiology and general space stuff,I’m like “okay,you are not cool for naming your attacks based on complex space stuff,it just make it look silly” in the most affectionate way possible

Elfilis is such a space nerd <3

[ponyexpressexpeditions]

WELCOME ABOARD!

Pony Express Expeditions is a privatized extraterrestrial research company specializing in Astrobiology! Which essentially means we get to look at, poke at, and run from SUPER COOL ALIENS!! I’m The Tulpar’s floating intern and Social Media Manager, Daisuke, here to give you a rundown on all the super cool scientific stuff we get up to! 

Our Captain is Curly Whatshisass (is curly the first name??? The last name??? The world may never know OOOoOoOOooOh), but we all just call him Captain. He’s super cool, even though he spends like, all day camped out in the cockpit. He likes to hear about all of our fun adventures, though! And he gets an hour a day to check on all the aliens (we have to call them “Specimens” on all our notes but thats so lame. They’re aliens) and review all our cool research and stuff! 

Jimmy’s the guy I’m technically interning under, I guess, but he’s like Batman??? Is that the superhero who works alone?? Hell if I know, man. Anyway, he’s our Extraterrestrial Field Explorer, in other words, the alien wrangler. He’s in charge of containing and transporting the “sPeCiMenS” we find from their home planets to the ship! He does that cool guy thing where he pretends to hate you as a way to show that he also thinks you’re cool, so don’t mind him if he’s a little short with you! 

Swansea's like the mystery guy on the ship! He's the mechanic on the ship, mainly for the fancy-smancy alien containment. I was supposed to be his intern, but he stopped going out into the field and decided mechanic stuff is cooler. He never talks about himself, which is hard to really be friends. Super grumpy, but he seems to loosen up when he drinks? But he seems cool!

And then we’ve got Nurse Anya! She’s our resident extraterrestrial veterinarian and caregiver on the ship, though she’s also in charge of patching us up if we get [REDACTED] by a [REDACTED] on our [REDACTED]! She keeps the critters we keep on the ship happy and healthy while learning more about them! She’s quiet but she makes friends with all the little guys we got on here, even the not so nice looking ones! 

Feel free to ask us any questions you have about all the awesome stuff we get to do in space! If you’ve got a question for a specific one of us, just leave a name in your question and I’ll make sure the right person gets to it! Stay tuned for some super cool totally not classified alien pictures and fun stories, like the time I almost got my ass bit right off by a [REDACTED]! Talk to you soon, homies!

[ashstfu]

"im double majoring in human biology and astrophysics now" that's SO cool omg, so like I assume the intersection is abt keeping ppl alive on space journeys? or investigating possible extraterrestrial life? or is it the origins of life?

oh hi this doesn’t work like that. when i say i’m double majoring in something it means that im focusing on two separate areas of study and it does not always have to be closely related. in biology i study genetics, ecology, evolution etc and in the astrophysics major, i delve into celestial mechanics, cosmology, observational astronomy, and planetary science! now that we’re talking about intersection, astrobiology investigates the potential for life beyond earth! it combines principles from both bio and astrophysics... it deals w exoplanets, extremophiles, and the conditions necessary for life elsewhere in the universe! its cool + my double major can def serve as a stepping stone towards astrobiology or related fields in the future ...

[elisartstuff]

Astrobiology

Uh

Yea. My therapy replacement (I am so cooked)

Second one defies all logic cause it does, I fucked up the galaxy and I'm PISSED

Anyways

[calculatesguilt]

40 between perceptor and rodimus

Prompt.

40. things you interrupted me to say

Perceptor had been going on and on and on about something or other of the implications of the life they found in some sort of nebula they passed through. Rodimus tried to pay attention. He really did! But as soon as Perceptor pulled out the word Astrobiological he felt his attention check out.

Instead, he focuses on the way Percy's hands move as he speaks, the way his lips move as he enunciates each, increasingly jargonistic, word. He narrows his eyes, wondering what it would be if given the opportunity to... no, no, that's silly.

Perceptor is, well, he can't imagine he sees him as anything other than his captain.. He's fucked up one too many times, and he wonders why he's even here still. On the Lost Light. After... He can't imagine Overlord was encouraging. Nor the addition of Megatron to their crew. Though, Percy never seemed too bothered by the latter.

"Do you follow?" Perceptor's question draws him out of his thoughts.

Rodimus waves his hand dismissively from where he's sat backwards on Percy's chair. "Yeah, yeah, astrobiological diversity in organic life."

Perceptor smiles, only just, and Rodimus feels ill at the sight. Primus this is getting out of hand.

Percy goes back to rambling, turning to the monitor and quickly typing something out to pull up images taken from the probe he sent out. The passion in his voice, the excitement, it's a stark contrast to the Wrecker he had come to know years back when he ended up tagging along after being stranded.

And it's... it's good to see. It's good to know that he brought that out in him.

He wants to kiss him. The thought is so jarring—

"What?" Perceptor says.

Oh kill him now, did he really say that out loud? "What?"

They stare at each other, a beat of silence.

"Can we uh... pretend I didn't say that?"

"No."

"Alright. Cool. I'm just going to leave."

"Rodimus—"

"Nope. I'm going." Before he could scramble off in utterly mortified shame, Perceptor grabs his arm.

"Captain." There is a gentle firmness in the scientist's voice, as he lets go when he's certain Rodimus won't flee the scene.

Rodims fidgets, only to notice Perceptor is fidgeting with his own hands. There is a nervous glint in his eyes he hadn't noticed before. An almost... shyness.

"Rodimus... I... ah... well, I would not be opposed."

"Really?" Rodimus is surprised, to say the very least. Perceptor is very handsome, there's no denying that, and charming in his own weird way, but he's also married to his work. He set it in his mind that the scientist would be completely untouchable.

This is... well it's a turn and he has no idea what to do now.

Perceptor nods, then quickly adds, "Ah but... preferably not when I am in the middle of talking... Perhaps we should... talk about this more? Later. When you are free and I am not busy with these biomarkers."

"Yeah! Yeah. Yeah sounds good to me. Can this... also just stay between us? I hate rumors going around the crew about me."

"Yes, Captain. Now... where was I? Ah, right! Biomarkers..."

[homeostasister]

for the science ask game: 🌏 📚 and 🔭!

🌏—fun fact from my area of study: there’s a type of white blood cell—a neutrophil—which (among other cool, but perhaps less iconic defense strategies) can release its own DNA, mixed with antibacterial proteins, outside of the cell to trap and destroy pathogens. The traps are named neutrophil extracellular traps, which are appropriately abbreviated NETs. (Here’s a review I found on NETosis, if you’re interested to learn more: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7590568/)

📚—something I want to understand better: I wish I could get into cell signalling and gene regulation. Whenever I take the time to study a signalling pathway, it’s always super interesting to see how all the different components work together, but then I just forget everything almost immediately.

🔭—what sparked my interest in science/my field: as far as I can remember I’ve always been interested in science, and I would credit my mom for that. When I was little she encouraged my curiosity and directed it towards science; she taught me about the scientific method, and I got very into the idea of discovering new things through observation and experimentation, which I think created sort of a positive feedback loop of my interest and her support—we read books about nature and about the process of science, we learned about famous scientists and their discoveries, we went to museums and zoos and aquariums and lectures about whatever I was interested in at the time. I think “being a scientist” has been part of my identity for as long as I’ve had one. I went through phases of interest in many different fields—astronomy, paleontology (yeah, I was a “dinosaurs and space!!” kid), ecology, astrobiology, and chemistry are some that I remember—and ended up settling on immunology. I got really interested in molecular biology from my 9th grade biology class—I had learned vaguely about cells and genetics before then, but for the first time I felt like I was really glimpsing the fundamental mechanisms of life, the individual interactions between proteins and other molecules that build upon one another and connect to give rise to the immense complexity of a living organism—a complexity which, until then, I had just sort of taken for granted. I was kind of amazed by all this, and I still am. My specific interest in immunology came from reading the manga Cells at Work. I knew little to nothing about how the immune system worked at that point, and I was confused about a lot of things in the story—so I would literally just start googling things like “how do memory b cells remember antigens” to try and figure out what the real-life processes were that were being portrayed. A lot of what I found went over my head, but I kept just looking up questions about how different parts of the immune system worked and slowly slipping into the vast and tangled rabbit warren that is immunology. A big part of why I’m still interested in the immune system is because it’s so complicated. I don’t feel like I could ever learn everything I want to know about how it works, and everything I do learn just brings up new questions to scroll through chains of half-understood PubMed articles trying to figure out. There’s so much I don’t know, and there’s so much we still have to figure out, and I would love to be part of that research.

[treeships]

coughs. hi still here

Always holding Ven-Ghan’s hand on main its my single braincell at time. I like to think about shared interests/hobbies (if.. yknow you could say he’s someone to have hobbies. maybe more just.. tasks he finds comfort in and doesnt mind the process.)

Being an auto tech/car enthusiast sometimes I feel that we could find an odd shared topic over engineering. Lord knows i’d wanna rack up question after question over “alien” engineering and design. “Why does your ship have (xyz) is it similar in sense as to why (a) vehicle has (b) feature so its easier to (c)” smthn yada yada. I just like talking about how stuff is designed sometimes.

Actually before I went into the automotive trade I really wanted to follow up on astrobiology. I just like space. I’d love to hear the endless stories of hunts and explorations he would have. Space is cool 👍 shoutout sci-fi shows and movies for making younger me fixate on the stars.

On that too god i’ve been rewatching Farscape a ton lately. Sometimes I wonder what his thoughts would be on shows/movies like that. Is Farscape a realistic depiction of whats out there? Or is it more in line with Star Trek? What about Andromeda?

Anyway yeah thumbs up. Heres a ramble.

[writeouswriter]

Heya!

For any OC who needs a bit more development/ 'on screen' time:

What is your OC's pain tolerance like? What memory would your OC rather just forget? What is your OC's weapon of choice? Have they ever actually used it?

(also, if required, use this as permission to slack off for a bit. Take some rest, do something fun, and remember you're cared about)

Heya! You're always a joy to see in my notes, such a positive force in this community, lovely, lovely, thank you for the ask!

I'm gonna do these for Anthony, full name Dr. Anthony Kasperek, an OC I've had for over a year but never really talked about, but the basics are: he's a scientist in the field of astro*incoherent mumbling* uh something or other, tentatively astrobiology, but maybe astrophysics or something else entirely depending which way the story goes or if I at all figure out what I'm talking about, point is, space science of some sort, okay, and he's one of a number of scientists invited to this somewhat shady facility to study what may be a possibly earth-shattering extraterrestrial artefact. He's stubborn, paranoid, jumpy, and a bit of an insomniac (because which of my ocs aren't at this point), but has a passion for space and the stars and unlocking the mysteries of the universe like nothing else. He's also very very good at his job, but has a manic edge that tends to scare people away, himself included sometimes. Anyway, onto questions:

What is your OC's pain tolerance like?

I'm oscillating between the idea of it being really low or really high due to the fact he's used to having to deal with things like massive migraines, needles and too much stimuli, but I don't know if that would make him more or less susceptible to the pain it causes. Because on the one hand, the familiarity could make him more numb to it, but on the other hand, it could also make him even more wary, elevating the issue in part psychosomatically. It certainly still causes him stress, so I'm inclined to think the amount he's been relegated to has actually lowered his pain tolerance over the years, making the sensations all the more unbearable/worse each time because he knows it's coming but still is never prepared because in an ideal world, he wouldn't have to deal with it again at all, and he wants to believe he's done with it, believe the pain will never come back, so it's a source of fear and shock every time it does.

2. What memory would your OC rather just forget?

Oh, for Anthony, I'm sure there are too many, especially the way his brain works, solidifying the worst of them, while throwing the rest into chaos when he's trying to focus and suddenly can't remember that vital piece of information in his head that was just there, it was just there, and also especially with his reputation as the “eccentric” scientist, which he’d rather have left behind. There's definitely the... incident that led him to be let go from his job at NASA, which he doesn’t like to talk about, (and also doesn’t understand how it hasn’t barred him from working on such a sensitive project, because what’s up with that? Why did they choose him? Why did they choose him?), and there’s the time in college when he had to spend a semester in the psych ward, but even then he had the stars to comfort him, (he somehow talked them into letting him have those little plastic glowing ones on the ceiling).

3. What is your OC's weapon of choice? Have they ever actually used it?

Is it trite if I say his intellect/his mind? Though sometimes in that case, the weapon occasionally turns on himself. Actually, I'll go with something even more trite and say his genuine love for the universe and everything in it is his greatest weapon (and probably a secret tool that will help us later.jpeg). Barring that, I think he'd think daggers are pretty cool, but I doubt that will come up in the story, I'm sure he might whack someone with his telescope if in a pinch, but ough the calibration, but when cornered, his weapon of choice would probably be his fists or his nails, or throwing whatever random objects happen to be in the vicinity, perhaps if given the opportunity, he might find a way to give someone a little zap with the building's electricity. He may or may not have used those last few methods before...

[supernovaa-remnant]

i'm proud i understood all the words you used without having to look them up lol the childhood obsession pays of.

thank you very much for the facts, i loved hearing them, especially about black holes!! in my opinion, they're one of the most interesting things in space :D i also really love wormholes and i hope we'll get to know if they actually exist one day lol

and please, tell me more about titan!! personally, my favorite moon is callisto, might be a bit basic but it's just so pretty.

anyway, enough space rambles from me, now it's your turn again :D

I’m glad you liked my space facts :D

omg black holes are sooooo cool!!!! asjlcjsjsvwlbskwvsjs they’re actually one of my favorite celestial objects (I think I’m just biased towards stars in all of their phases lol). Probably one of the reasons why interstellar is one of my favorite movies.

wormholes are also super cool to think about!! I hope that, even if it turns out they don’t exist naturally occurring in space, that’d it be possible to make an artificial wormhole. Arguably, it would be even more significant to find out they exist by finding an artificially made one vs a naturally occurring one bc that would mean someone had to have built it, but I digress. I think it’d just be cool to know if they can exist at all.

Callisto’s a really cool moon!! I love everything abt space so much! I don’t think you could find smth out there that’d I’d dislike lol.

As for Titan, there are a few really cool things about it. For one, if there’s any other life in the solar system that’s not on Earth, it’d most likely be either on Ganymede or Titan. (Which, I think the chances of alien life in our solar system are pretty low astronomically speaking, but it’s not impossible and I think that’s amazing!!)

Titan is the only known place in our solar system other than Earth to have liquid on it’s surface!! Which is so cool!!!! Because we know Mars, for example, used to have liquid oceans, but it doesn’t anymore. And, we know that all known life in the universe (aka life on Earth) started in the ocean. Titan has lakes and rivers (not so much oceans), but that’s still so cool!!However, Titan’s surface liquid is not made of water. It’s liquid methane which I think is sick. Like, stepping away from astrobiology for a moment and looking more at astrochemistry, the fact that Titan has liquid methane on it’s surface, and it rains liquid methane is so cool to me.

I just think Titan is neat, and NASA has some fun missions planned for sending rovers out to Titan to collect samples, so I highly suggest looking at that if it’s smth that would interest you :3

Quick note about Ganymede (one of Jupiter’s four major moons, which are the moons Galileo saw centuries ago through a telescope)!! There are most likely oceans on Ganymede. Not on the surface, but there nonetheless. The thing about Ganymede is that it’s all ice. However, the gravitational pull from Jupiter affects its moons in the same way that our moon affects the tides. It’s causing movement and friction inside the planets (which is why Io, another one of Jupiter’s moons, is so volcanically active—Io’s another fun moon to talk abt, but I think this post is getting long enough).

So, this gravitational means that there are most likely liquid oceans about 150 kilometers under the surface ice on Ganymede. It is possible that it could just be slush, but it’s most likely liquid. Which is so cool!!! Because life on Earth started in the oceans!!!!! And this means there could be life on Ganymede. Especially because there’s evidence that it’s a water ocean! Specifically a salt water ocean!!!! Oh! Another thing! The ocean on Ganymede would be at least 3 times larger than all of the water on Earth’s surface. Like, this would be a massive ocean. Which means if there was life, it would have the potential to get incredibly large.

Ganymede is also the only satellite/moon in the solar system to have its own magnetic field!!! Overall an incredibly interesting place in our solar system.

Anyway, I’m gonna wrap up here. Sky, there is never too much space rambling, so please ramble about space as much as you want!!!! :)