Wednesday, September 27, 2006

Connections

An article in The Oregonian today Wednesday September 27, 2006 about “older” galaxies being studied by astronomers using the Hubble telescope are interesting in many ways. For one thing shows how as time goes on more and more information is gathered unleashing mysteries. One of the astronomers is John Blakeslee from Washington State University who together with other three found about five hundred galaxies that were formed when the universe was very young. According to the article the formation of these galaxies formed when the universe had about 7% of its present age of about 13.7 Ga. These ages are so immense that are beyond the scope of our human comprehension.
Supported by a grant from Paul Allen a group of scientists was able to map the brain of a mouse. One of the purposes of this project was to unravel the connections physical and genetic of the brain. To read more about the news go to: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060927/ap_on_sc/mouse_brain_map where you can read that the information obtained is going to be accessible on line free to all in order to help world wide collaboration on this subject. Both the 100 million dollars invested and the world wide impact that this project will accomplish are somewhat out of our human comprehension. One aspect that is worth mentioning is that the 3-D mapping cost of about 41 million dollars is under the 50 million budgeted meaning that the time used is less that the time expected. Some times –most of the times- one takes more time than expected to accomplish a project so this case is a good example of the flexibility needed when pursuing a goal. This flexibility included in the planning of a project is one of our more difficult elements to deal with.
On the other hand there is also an article in The Oregonian about the re-opening of Crater Lake to visitors after the lake has been cleaned of “tui chub” a noxious fish that took over the lake and was destroyed using harsh chemicals. This cleanup operation took several years of planning and obtaining the necessary permits and a few weeks for its accomplishment. These times are surely within our human comprehension.
What is the connection between these two articles? We as a race are open to the understanding of times scales that are within and beyond our own frame of reference.

Wednesday, September 13, 2006

Time to adapt

In our lives we have to adapt to many things. Going back to school every year after summer breaks, going on vacation, visiting friends, every morning there is something new. As we have to adapt to new situations we take time doing it. Some times a lot of time, some times not so much!
So the question is: How do we make it so it takes the minimum time to adapt? How important is that we make this time as efficient as possible. How can we be intentional about it?