David Bercovici’s lecture on the origins of the Earth was pretty science orientated to me. Before his lecture and seminar, we read few chapters of his book the Origins of Everything in 100 Pages (More or Less), in which Bercovici introduced the formation of the solar system, the planet Earth, the ocean, and the climate. I learned from his book and lecture about the chemical and geological processes that all these basic building blocks went through to form the environment we live in today. But jumping out of the pure science cycle, it is also interesting to think about the social and historian implications of these scientific findings.
Author: Anna Yu (Page 3 of 3)
I was 10 years old when I learned that humans could only move forward in time and that the Sun would eventually engulf the earth for the first time. The fear of death and inexistence immediately swallowed me, who was too young to think about and question the meaning of life. I wondered for such a long time what the point of living was if eventually everything would be exploded and gone and how could the future creatures know that I once existed. Even till today, I feel so lost and flustered to think about these questions to which I have never had an answer.