This isn’t a regular science blog it’s a cool science blog 😎 and the occasional museum gift shop aesthetic blog

Here are some of my other blogs if you’re interested:

@seaslugsapphic - general fandom/random trash blog. Currently very into Cbs Ghosts but also The Untamed (2019), Star Wars, Star Trek, Drag Race, ofmd, wwdits, Marble Hornets, McElroy’s, Animal Crossing, etc. (I post here a LOT)

@jonewsom - Joanna Newsom fan blog

@quailbirds - art inspo blog

@quailoftheyear - kind of a cottagecore and nature aesthetic blog. Feel good content for me

@ghosthuddle - spooky aesthetic blog, liminal dreamcore type stuff

I’ve got an Etsy shop for ghosts fanmerch

Header gif made by @tranquilitybase11 !

-✌🏽🪐

“How am I supposed to explain gay people to my kids!?” I have to explain algebra to your kids, who don’t know what 1x0 equals to. You got off easy.

gajjalu:

beatrice-otter:

neilarmstrong:

neilarmstrong:

neilarmstrong:

In terms of science communication and space exploration advocacy, Elon Musk has sent us back into the fucking Stone Age.

It’s hard enough to encourage the public to see the value in space exploration, especially when the problems facing society right now are so intense that space exploration seems frivolous and needlessly expensive by comparison (keyword “seems”) but now that this clown is the face of the future of space, it’s doubling, hell, tripling down on the idea that space exploration is a fantasy for bored billionaires that would rather fuck off to mars and escape the problems of earthly society (problems that they had a starring role in creating) rather than spend a penny of their wealth to help remedy them. Tale as old as time for a science communicator. Heard it a million times. But now it’s so much harder to get people to understand the other side of the coin because the nightmare scenario is already here and his name is elongated muskrat

To add a little bit of context as to what that value actually is… The thing I hear the most in this conversation is “we need to take care of this planet before we start thinking about other ones.” Yes, I agree. The well-being of our planet and it’s people should be our top priority. But we can’t properly take care of our planet if we don’t fully understand it.

The Earth does not exist in a bubble. It’s part of a dynamic and ever-evolving solar system, and galaxy and universe. He have to look at the earth in that context to be able to know and care for it. To care for a planet, we have to know how planets work. When doctors treat patients they look at the medical record, they look at family history, they look at symptoms and compare them to known diseases to find a diagnosis.

How did the earth form? What was it like in the past? Why did it change? That’s the medical record.

We’ve got the earths siblings in the neighborhood. Why is Mars a frozen desert? Why is Venus a molten hell scape? Could those things happen here? That’s the family history.

What kinds of things are floating around our neighborhood? Could they affect us? All this is necessary to diagnose the Earths problem, to anticipate the direction it’s going, and to help it heal.

And the minute we get an asteroid scare, that’s when folks start asking why we weren’t looking up 🙄

All of this is absolutely true, but there are people who will blow this off and not be willing to engage with it, and still say “but it’s too expensive!”

But the thing is, government-funded research returns HUGE value to the economy. Huge. Why? Because they figure out cool things, and then give it away for free, so that lots of different people can benefit in different ways. If a private corporation does the research, they own it, they’re the only ones who can use it to make money. If the government does the research, however, it’s public property, and anybody can use it.

Over the decades, research and development for things the space program needed has resulted in so many things we use in our daily lives and take for granted.

On average, the return on investment for the US space program is $7 for every one dollar spent.

Products that came out of NASA development include but are not limited to: batteries that can power heavy tools, rechargeable batteries, digital cameras, precision GPS, shock absorbers for buildings and bridges, CAT scans, enriched baby formula, advanced water filters, cochlear implants, memory foam, athletic shoes, smoke detectors, electronic thermometers, cardiac pumps, cloud computing, plus a metric shitton of “hey, this is a better/safer/sturdier/cheaper way of doing/building $thing”

They are constantly and consistently providing real, tangible benefits to life on earth.

I would support the public space program even if they didn’t. But the list of innovations they’ve created is amazing.

the real tea is that space exploration IS for bored billionaires because 70% of the earth’s oceans are unexplored!!!!!!

Yes because bored billionaires have famously never tried to explore the oceans as well

Also,

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