The Cosmic Connection

A scene from The Lion King

Pumbaa   : Timon, ever wonder what those sparkly dots are up there?

Timon      : Pumbaa, I don't wonder; I know.

Pumbaa   : Oh. What are they?

Timon      : They're fireflies. Fireflies that, uh... got stuck up in that big bluish-black thing.

Pumbaa   : Oh, gee. I always thought they were balls of gas burning billions of miles away.

Timon      : Pumbaa, with you, everything's gas.

Recently, one of my colleagues was describing a camping trip at an African wildlife national park. I asked him to describe how beautiful the skies looked at night and he said with unwavering conviction that it was so magical that he even saw the light from the heavens shining down upon Earth.

Like Timon, Pumbaa and my colleague, everyone has their own interpretation for explaining the phenomenon that is the Universe. Even the world's popular religions have taken a stab at trying to explain our connection to the Universe. Every time I look up at the starry skies or stargaze through a telescope, I feel humbled by how insignificant and small I am in comparison to what lies beyond our field of vision, our current understanding of the Universe, the facts yet to be uncovered and the limits of our imagination. 

We humans are curious creatures burning with the desire to make sense of our surroundings. Century after century of this type of curiosity about the objects in the sky coupled with the collective wisdom of many Astronomers, Scientists, Physicists, Mathematicians, Astronomy today is a mind-boggling branch of Science that never ceases to amaze me.

The infographic below sums up the milestones in the history of Astronomy quite nicely.

Credit: Starmap

As I was sweeping through my Facebook news feed one day, I came to know of the visit of a famous Astrophysicist to Singapore (yes, the news feed does have its useful purposes). He was none other than the famous and charismatic Dr Neil deGrasse Tyson on a publicity tour with Ann Druyan, the wife of the late Carl Sagan to promote the upcoming TV series Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey. 

So on Valentine's day, I asked permission from my boss to have an extended lunch break to attend this event at my old university (I called in advance to check if they allowed alumni since the advertisement said students and staff only). My boss still suspects that I went on a Valentine's day lunch date with a guy, which was fine by me since it saved me the trouble of having to give a lengthy explanation of my fascination with Astronomy, a biography of the two distinguished guests and an introduction to the new TV series. I am still working on being chatty with my friendly boss who I thought was very kind to let me off during office hours, while turning down my offer to work late to make up for it. He asked a couple of indirect questions to determine where I might be going on my lunch break, none of which was a simple and direct "WHERE ARE YOU GOING, SHU?", so I missed that train of opportunity to give a fair explanation of my plans for the day. Sigh.

At the university, in my old faculty, hit by an overwhelming sense of nostalgia and hunger pangs, I queued with many others to wait to get into the lecture hall. There was no time for lunch that day so I had to do with a tiny pack of chips. I found a nice spot in the centre of the hall and watched as the venue fill up until it could hold no more people. One of my old lecturers from an Astronomy-related module I did with much enthusiasm was also scurrying about the hall. I also noticed that compared to university students (which I was about 7-10 years ago), I was much better dressed now and ate less junk food and sweets in wrappers.

When it was nearly time for his arrival, I was feeling very excited and jittery, much like a child waiting for the starting act of a circus show. He was late though and the prolonged effect of adrenaline on a starved stomach was not exactly nice! But eventually, he arrived amidst the cheers and applause after we were treated to the season premiere of Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey which airs in March. I was blown away by the visual effects and content that I had goose bumps for most of time and now I can't wait to catch it on TV in March. Perhaps I'll also try to dig up the original Cosmos: A Personal Voyage series done by Carl Sagan in the 1980's.

Dr Tyson was so likeable and had the audience cheering and applauding ever so often! He was very friendly, extremely funny, intelligent and accomplished with stellar qualifications, yet there was no air of arrogance or superiority about him. He answered every question (the seemingly silly and the intelligent ones) from the students with the same enthusiasm and humour to impart whatever knowledge he had on the subject in the most understandable terms.

When it was over, I rushed back to office, had a cup of instant soup and resumed work. Overall, I thought that was a day well spent!

The Departures Terminal

And just like that, February creeped up upon us.

Shu was quite occupied the last few weeks in a string of social commitments, from playing host/ tour guide to a young traveller to bidding farewell to three friends who left the country to catching up with her closest pals. Meanwhile, she's also had a life-changing shift in her daily routine...

For someone who has voiced out the challenges of associating with extroverted friends, I ought to be more grateful for the bountiful opportunities that come while being in their association. One day while taking the bus with my colleague, I was introduced to a staff from the Human Resources department. Left to my own, I would have looked in the opposite direction of fellow passengers, plugged my earphones and gazed out of the window dreamily at the trees and clouds and people passing by. But on this day, I was forced to make an effort to socialise with the new acquaintance, during which time I learnt there was a company sponsored bus meant for expats working on special projects, about 7 bus stops away from my house. Soon after, I inquired further and got an exception to take it. This arrangement has given me not only financial savings and convenience, but also an extra 1.5 hours in the day equaling to an additional 9 hours in my week, which is pretty awesome! Now my routine looks like this:

5:00am - Wake up, have tea, make breakfast and get ready for work
5:55am - Leave the house and walk 2.5km to bus pick-up point while investigating celestial objects in the pre-dawn sky with Google Sky Map (or just take a quick 10-minute public bus ride if I don't feel like walking 3900 footsteps for exercise)
6:30am - Get into the company sponsored transport bus
7:00am - Arrive at work
5:00pm - Leave work
6:00pm - Arrive at home (on days without social commitments)
10:30pm - Go to bed (on days without social commitments)

The bearings of my office transport in relation to my apartment are (it's cooler to think of it this way):
Follow Venus until I pass 3 gas stations, then with Venus on my left, follow the Crux constellation until I arrive at a small white bus filled with sleepy zombies dressed in white coveralls.

 

Early morning notes: Venus and Saturn are in view these days, but Saturn's too far away to distinguish from other stars without a telescope. Venus, on the other hand, is hard to miss.

Hurrah!! Now my evenings are enriched with reading books, watching TV, playing games on the xbox, blogging and having home-cooked dinner. I even took out my dusty violin yesterday, tuned it using a phone app and attempted to play a few familiar tunes! My violin playing skills have degraded with time but it felt good to be reunited with the instrument.

~ ~ ~

Going to the same school for the first 15 years of my schooling life had its perks. I grew up with friends and teachers who were part of my life for extended periods of time, giving rise to several fulfilling friendships that I maintain to this day. Not only that, I've been lucky to have several mentors who took a special interest in teaching me, guiding me to better places and unknowingly shaping me to what I've become (apparently, a caterpillar who blogs when she is not working!).

I had a Mathematics teacher who taught me from Grade 6 all the way up to A/Ls. Her classes were very entertaining. When she was around, the boys in class got extra cheeky and brought out their comical sides. She was a short-haired, smart, upbeat, loud, eccentric, fun-loving, kind-hearted being with the gift of reaching out to children with various personalities, most notably, the ones with special needs like bullies, lost sheep, the troubled ones and the weird ones. She tutored many kids at her home for no cost just to help them pass exams and I benefited a lot from this kindness and generosity. I figure that her super power of reforming kids was that she gave them a chance to be heard before attempting to throw in any elderly advice. In return, these kids grew to trust her, respect her and allow themselves to be guided by her good advice. I still try to make time to visit her whenever I go home and it seems she hasn't aged a day! I suppose being with youngsters all the time keeps you young at heart.

I think being a teacher is a sort of investment. Apart from being able to change many lives for better and basking in the satisfaction of having done so, the "seeds" (which are the students, in this case) that germinate disperse far and wide, often creating waves of positive change themselves. The exceptional teachers will always be dearly remembered and have an army of grown up ex-students around the globe.

The young traveller I had to host was the daughter of this teacher. She was on a university semester break and was sent to Singapore by her mother who assumed that Shu could be trusted with the job of keeping an eye on her precious 23-year old. It was her first ever overseas trip. I prepared in advance for her arrival making lists of instructions for her to follow and stocking up on food supplies, taking her multitude of allergies into consideration. The only thing we could not get rid of completely was Ginger.

Thankfully, the girl was smart and independent and managed well on her own during the day. Every evening after work, for 5 days, I met her and took her around like it was my second job being a tour guide. One evening, I caught her high as a kite and awfully chatty (a lot chattier than her usual self). On inquiring further, I learnt that she had an eventful day where she met a roadside guitarist who had serenaded her with a beautiful song, met another traveller with whom she had a nice chat and then gone on to take a relaxing boat ride along the Singapore River to see the city's splendour by night. It brought back warm memories of my solo travels in Paris. Tiring as it was, this streak of touring around the prettier places of Singapore during Chinese New Year was a welcome change for me.

 Traditional Chinese music to depict the onset of a New Year

The famous Clark Quay of Singapore with its happening night life and traditional river boat rides

The young traveller had a memorable trip, overwhelmed by the contrast between the two countries and their cultures. She was mostly blown away by the skyscrapers, apartment buildings housing a large population, the variety of food, the mix of races, the sense of law, order and cleanliness of Singapore.

~ ~ ~ 

Earlier this week, I bid farewell to one of my housemates who moved on from Singapore to fulfil her long-term ambitions. We've had a very coincidental timeline of life events where, with no prior planning or discussion, we have found ourselves in the same location time and time again. I have come to think of her as my non-biological twin. 

Our coincidental timeline of life events

We met in pre-school and went on to be best friends in Grade 2. As far as I can remember in pre-school, she had the cutest short hair with lots and lots of tiny curls. We exchanged stickers and went swimming together and got picked up and dropped in school by our elder sisters (who coincidentally, were also classmates). I recall she was among the smartest and the most talented in class. She was also the fastest runner among all the girls and most of the boys! Then she had to leave the country with her family to Oman and unfortunately, we couldn't keep in touch. I also happened to leave to a new school for a year and a half, until I could take it no longer and begged my parents to let me go back to my old school. When I returned to my old school in Grade 4, 'lo and behold, there she arrived in the same class a few days later! Though we were separated into different classes, went on to have different friends and grew distinctly different personalities, we always acknowledged each other with much fondness.

There's another amusing conversation I recall in Grade 6 when girls in the class used to disappear for extended periods of time, one by one. In our country, they make a HUGE fuss over a girl's "coming of age". While the specific traditions for each race differs, the general theme for most races is that once she hits puberty, she will be immediately confined in a room in the most hush-hush tones (in some cases up to a month!), away from the eyes of males relatives and friends. During this time, she is fed with very specific food. Female friends would take turns to keep company to this poor, confused soul quarantined in a room, who constantly wonders what all this fuss is about. Meanwhile, the parents consult astrologers for auspicious times, get tailored suits, whitewash the house and prepare for a grand party to announce to everyone that she is now sexually mature (it's quite a disturbing thought if you asked me). When it is finally time for her to make a public appearance, she is presented very extravagantly to all her relatives and close friends of the family, who arrive with gifts like gold jewellery, cash for the savings account, material to sew dresses, kitchen utensils, etc (all being utterly useless gifts for a 12-year old girl). When I spoke to other friends about the experience, some say for them it was a quiet affair without any public announcements but I've also met others who had parties in the epic proportions of a mini-wedding.

Got a bit carried away there, explaining a peculiar tradition!

So yes, I vaguely recall the two of us having a conversation that went something to this effect (though I don't know if she remembers it in the same way or if we were not talking about the same thing!):

She may have noticed me handing over the letter of absence to my teacher...
Chuti: Were you absent?
Shu: Yes, for about 2 weeks.
Chuti: Hey, me too! I just got back.
Shu: Er... did you also?
Chuti: Yes! haha
Shu: Haha
Awkwardness engulfs us...

She left to another school shortly after the O/Ls, but we were delighted to meet again in university doing the same course. After graduation, she went to Dubai for work and when she returned to Singapore a few years later, I left to Dubai for work. A few years later when I returned to Singapore, unemployed, she welcomed me to her house and looked after me until I got on my own feet and we remained housemates until she left Singapore earlier this week.

She maintains a deep fascination for Egyptian history, dinosaurs, Garfield and fashion design

We saw eye-to-eye when it came to the special needs of introverts, being considerate for the benefit of those around us, being sensible and fair. I'll certainly miss having her around, but I'm inspired to see her actively pursuing her ambitions with much patience and determination! And who knows, we may even bump into each other again.

Good luck, Chuti! xx

The Perseids Meteor Shower

“The nitrogen in our DNA, the calcium in our teeth, the iron in our blood, the carbon in our apple pies were made in the interiors of collapsing stars. We are made of starstuff.” 

― Carl Sagan, Cosmos

It's Sunday and I woke up from five hours of sleep around 6 pm, had a lunch of chive dumplings with soya sauce and shredded ginger and sat down to blog about the turn of events that led to this hazy moment. There were copious amounts of caffeine, a hash brown, packed sandwiches, chips, stray cats, the calming sounds of waves, brightly lit oil tankers on the horizon, people camping out and fishing, chilling shivers from the sea breeze, badly used public toilets, a rain shower at dawn, lots of walking, mild food poisoning...

...and the best of all, SHOOTING STARS!

It is the season of the Perseids meteor shower! And I caught it with Ryuu last night at East Coast Park. Singapore is not particularly famous for star gazing due to light pollution but we were pretty lucky to have clear skies without the moon. We managed to spot clusters of stars (none of which we recognised from the constellations on our star map, except for Orion's belt, because it was too dark to read and we forgot to take a torch!) and 4-6 pretty meteors, including a fireball that streaked across the sky in slow motion. Fireballs are bright meteors that come really close to the Earth's atmosphere and appear brighter than Venus. Star gazing brings me much joy. It is comparable to catching a special effects movie with good front row seats on the largest screen ever built, humbled by the fact that I am so insignificant on a celestial scale.

It's at times like these I really feel blessed having adventurous friends who accompany me without so much as a protest to all kinds of places, amid small inconveniences to do fun things like camping at zoos and catching meteor showers. I like to think that I am capable of going wherever I please to experience whatever I fancy regardless of having company or not, but having the same experience in good company makes it much more memorable and that is always appreciated.

This map shows all of Singapore. Put on a map of the world, Singapore is like a microscopic wart. We got from point A to B to watch the meteor shower in under 2 hours.

Every August, the Earth passes through the debris left behind from the comet Swift-Tuttle, forming the Perseids meteor shower. It's favourite among meteor shower fans as it promises a good show of meteors and fireballs (estimated 60 meteors an hour at its peak!) and increases the odds of spotting meteors even for people living in places with bright city-lights like Singapore. As a bonus, the event this year coincided with a dark phase of the moon.

For star gazers, the meteors would appear to originate from the constellation of Perseus

Bother, it's work tomorrow. The star charms collected over the weekend should help me get through this week.

The Venus Transit

A period of unemployment has its rare perks.

6th June 2012 was an exciting day for all astronomy enthusiasts, Shu included! Planet Venus transited between the Sun and the Earth and Singapore was fortunate enough to fall within the areas of visibility for this rare astronomical event. Since the next Venus Transit happens in the year 2117 and I'll be long gone from the face of the Earth by then, I decided to make the most of this day.

The transit across the face of Sun lasted nearly 7 hours, from around 6 am to 1 pm. I was up by 5:20 am (I had to slap myself awake a few times and remind myself that I won't live to see the next one and that's when I stopped snoozing the alarm) and as a result of bad route planning and unaware that certain buses were not in service at that time of the morning, I took an extra 1.5 hours to get to the National University of Singapore football field. The skies were too cloudy and the Sun was not yet up over the high rise buildings, so we had to wait.

After absorbing the nostalgic sights of the campus, loitering around the all-too-familiar Science Faculty and buying some unsatisfactory breakfast, I found a nice spot on the stands to sit and read my new favourite book, Pride and Prejudice. It took me 27 years to finally start reading the book. It was on top of the list of highly recommended classics during my school years, but I wasn't the biggest fan of literature then and there was little motive for reading these when it was mostly for 'exam purposes'. Anyhow, I am glad I picked it up - admittedly, I was only attracted to it by the highly discounted price. My own feelings have been rising and falling quite strongly as the story is unraveling. So far, I have already called Mr Darcy a dick jerk and wanted to shove a toilet brush down Mr Collin's throat and felt very angry about the way Mr Collins tried to force a proposal on Elizabeth (relax, Shu). Though the story is set in 19th century England and the language is at times difficult for me to grasp, the characters are very relatable and the descriptions of their interactions by the author seem to elevate the reader to an extra dimension for observing and understanding human nature in general. It's quite hard to explain. Maybe it's a good thing I picked it up late - I understand and relate with the story better now than I would have when I was a teenager.

The Sun was not yet up and it was already nearing 9 am.

Soon, a plain looking man in jeans and a T-shirt came up to the stands, where I was seated with three others and calls us "Come, come, you must attend the lecture that is starting in a bit!!". I looked up and immediately recognised him as Dr Phil Chan! He was my lecturer for a module I took over 5 years ago called "Einstein's Universe and Quantum Weirdness". As he was walking back to the lecture theatre, I raaaaan up to him and made small talk (very un-Shu-like, but I did!) and told him I was one of his students long ago and in all that excitement I forgot to mention how much I enjoyed his module but I think he figured. He didn't have the slightest air of pride or arrogance about him, just like I remembered him. It was one of a handful of modules that I thoroughly enjoyed and studied very proactively during my undergraduate years. And this guy was a remarkable teacher, he hardly stood still during lectures. His face usually lit up and his arms waved around with much animation when he spoke of certain topics in astrophysics. He went off syllabus most of the time to show us fascinating things, he liked combining bits of philosophy into the lecture slides in a very thought provoking manner, he went through great pains to combine theory with practicals for a large class of students and his assessments were actually enjoyable. I was smitten by this guy's passion and knowledge of the subject back then, so being reminded of it once again was certainly a highlight on this day.

My hopes of seeing the spectacle dwindled as the sky was too cloudy. I sat through lectures by two famous visiting physicists, Prof Roy Kerr and Prof Richard Strom. The former spoke mainly of his work on black hole theories and the latter gave an entertaining account of the expeditions undertaken by astronomers of the early centuries to study the previous transits of Venus, risking their lives even to add to the growing knowledge of astrophysics at the time.

Post-lectures, the day went well. The sky cleared, the sun was up and several telescopes were set up for the viewing pleasure of the public and my mission for the day was eventually accomplished. 

Set up of telescopes for the public

Venus, appears as a tiny round speck against the background of the Sun, as seen through one of the smaller telescopes

Realising how modern science is rapidly expanding the map of the Universe as we know it, unfolding newer mysteries faster than resolving the older ones, I can't help but wonder how insignificant we on Earth are and how very unlikely it is that we are alone in this Universe. 

Wish upon a star!

Here's a song, that feels like you are high on air! (helps to mute the lyrics)



I think I may have written the first chapter for my autobiography! A very controversial one, but I'll be excited if this plan of mine goes to the stage of a book. I know it's going to take ages but I don't care if no one reads it (except my editor and a few close friends whom I'll force to read up!), I just want to challenge myself to see that I can see it through. Lesse.

Went to class today after a month. Very rusty, but I got a tiny lesson on something I've been drooling and dying to learn for YEARS. It was a good feeling to be reunited with music. Now to kick myself to practice more often.

Dad's going to be here in 2 days' time. He's is so sweet and smart, that's about all I know about him. He speaks very little, but I wish he gave more feedback on what he thinks of me. My Jeep will have all the free health checkups while he is here as he loves diagnosing faults and fixing vehicles.

I long to see a meteor shower! Missed one many years ago when I was a kid. I distinctly remember waiting for the a meteor shower, laying flat on the warm concrete pathway in my garden, watching the sky, which looked so beautifully dark blue and studded with millions of sparkly stars and planets. Btw, tar roads are nice and warm to sleep on by the end of the day. Tried it laying down on a road for a short while for the heck of it as a kid to find out what animals find so great about it. Anyway, it got too late, the meteor shower didn't happen while I was waiting and my mom yelled out asking me to come back inside because it was too dark and there might be snakes!

Oh no! Work tomorrow, with new clothes and a new (unsymmetrical) haircut.