{"id":696,"date":"2018-02-26T18:48:10","date_gmt":"2018-02-26T13:18:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lifearteducation.in\/blog\/?p=696"},"modified":"2018-02-26T18:48:10","modified_gmt":"2018-02-26T13:18:10","slug":"the-big-picture","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lifearteducation.in\/laeblog\/2018\/02\/26\/the-big-picture\/","title":{"rendered":"*The Big Picture"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

It is truly commendable that as one collective living species, we humans have been continuously building a great knowledge base, in \u2018little\u2019 steps,\u00a0over the years and years of our existence. We\u2019ve also suffered and we continue to live through terrible problems that shadow our very world – natural disasters as well as man-made crisis. The manifolds of our human weaknesses, deficiencies, and atrocities and our tendency of often repeating the most classical \u201chuman errors\u201d make us vulnerable and responsible somewhere down the line. Yet as the \u201cmankind\u201d we continuously thrive, we keep trying to rebuild, we fight our own mistakes and we\u00a0endure to be the most influential of all other living forms on this planet Earth, our \u2018home\u2019 inside this vastness that we call – the Universe.<\/p>\n

One of the most straightforward ways of finding a decent perspective on this big picture can be simply by looking at one of the fundamental dimensions-\u201clength\u201d. Here is a nice \u201cUniverscale\u201d\u00a0http:\/\/www.nikon.com\/about\/sp\/universcale\/scale.htm<\/strong><\/a>, summarizing the relative large (or small)-ness of objects (and concepts) we know of. Fairly suggestive numbers along with definitions of the relevant units of length make it a fun and informative quick reference tool. Please click on the above link and explore (it is simple, interesting and interactive) for a little while, it shall then bring us to see the quite obvious point here!<\/p>\n

\"Image

Image source: Nikon Universcale<\/p><\/div>\n

Isn\u2019t it simply\u00a0amazing<\/strong>\u00a0to\u00a0visualize<\/strong>\u00a0this h-u-g-e \u201cscale\u201d of the Universe? On the lower side, the scale goes down to lengths in the order of \u201cfemtometre<\/strong>\u201d<\/strong>\u00a0(1\u00a0fm\u00a0= 10-15<\/sup>\u00a0m i.e. a quadrillionth of a meter e.g. relevant to sizes of the elementary constituents of matter). On the upper side, one can speak in orders\u00a0of billions of\u00a0Light-years<\/strong>\u00a0(1 Light-year is the distance that light travels through free space in one year e.g. the upper bound diameter of \u201cObservable Universe\u201d [ref.1] is estimated (as of now) to be ~93 billion Light years (or ~ 8.8 X 1026<\/sup>\u00a0m). Within these unbounded\u00a0extremes, the sizes and distances of most of all that we see, know or have theoretically estimated are duly distributed.<\/p>\n

As interesting this range of astronomically small and large figures are (for those interested in numbers), one definite take away\u00a0for all of us<\/strong>\u00a0is perhaps the\u00a0relative<\/strong>\u00a0measure<\/strong>\u00a0of largeness or smallness in all that we perceive. If we look at ourselves as an object on this scale, it is funny to think, to the microbial world we probably appear like unrealistic giant monsters or machines! On the other hand, with\u00a0respect to the size of our own galaxy (which itself is a speck within the Universe), we are just way too\u00a0minuscule\u00a0to be even distinguished as randomly suspended dust particles in Space (and in this picture how tiny are our everyday problems, then!).<\/p>\n

No matter who we are, how \u201clarge\u201d or “small we may seem to each other, whatever our most immediate and apparent concerns may be, if we are able to see through this picture, we will most definitely\u00a0wonder<\/strong>. Actually, we probably\u00a0need\u00a0<\/b>to take a moment and\u00a0wonder<\/strong>!\u00a0<\/b>With all that participates in this abundant and dynamic cosmos and chaos, there is also \u201clife\u201d\u00a0<\/strong>(definitely one of the most interesting processes we know of) following which we can see our very\u00a0existence.\u00a0<\/strong>There are all the good reasons to be fascinated with this supremely special reality that we\u00a0exist. <\/strong>And if we are able to truly appreciate this, it might get a bit more likely to acquire that much-needed\u00a0inspiration<\/strong>\u00a0which nature offers us inherently- the inspiration to use this finite lifetime of ours in meaningful attempts.\u00a0The best part is there is no lack of fascinating subjects and areas to work on and there is no end to observing, questioning, exploring and delving deeper, so it can never really get boring!<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Richard.

Richard. P. Feynman
Image source: Wikipedia<\/p><\/div>\n

It is a good\u00a0place to borrow what Richard Feynman [ref. 2] said (if one doesn\u2019t already know him\u00a0from his unputdownable \u201cFeynman\u2019s lectures in Physics\u201d and \u201cSurely you\u2019re joking Mr. Feynman\u201d, – he was one\u00a0curious smart man, a Nobel laureate physicist, a doyen of quantum electrodynamics whose contributions to modern physics remain undeniable and whose depth of knowing something and explaining that shall always inspire the students) –<\/p>\n

\u201cNobody ever figures out what life is all about, and it doesn’t matter. Explore the world. Nearly everything is really interesting if you go into it deeply enough.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

This is a wise food for thought we may want to pause at and ponder over for a little longer time..\u00a0\ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Footnotes and References<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n