OUTER SPACE! 🌌

As well as Medical Sciences…there is another branch of Science which completely and utterly fascinates me beyond words. I’ve just had a huge throwback after looking through some of my old things, and it’s inspired me to write a little bit about this other passion that I share.

Yes, of course it is the fascinating topic of Outer Space! I came across some of my old books…some giant Space photography books and some very detailed informational books. I’ve read each one from cover to cover many times…I don’t think I could ever possibly get bored of them! Space was probably one of the first aspects of Science which drew me in…it was truly enchanting and from this I continued to develop a deep love for all different Scientific processes.

I’ve read all about the 3.75 billion year awaiting collision of the Milky Way and the Andromeda Galaxy. This was definitely something I was awed by right from the start. Obviously, we will be long gone by the time these events unfold, but the mere idea that we as humans were able to predict such a huge event was something which I was enthralled by. I was bewildered by the wealth of knowledge that was available on topics which I wouldn’t have ever thought it was possible for us to know about. To me it felt like Science was the grand unveiling of the many phenomena of the universe which were always deemed to be an unknown mystery.

I also went through a phase of researching and pinpointing all the known ‘Goldilock’s Planets’, and then when it came up on the news that a new Goldilock’s Planet had been discovered I was so excited that I created a whole Space presentation which I delivered to my class. Life beyond Earth is definitely something which very much excites me (even though it is something I am very much sceptical to the idea of). It’s quite interesting that last week during my Religion & Philosophy lesson we were discussing the question of “What if you were to find out that it’s just Earth and nothing beyond exists?” This is a question which I had never even in the slightest thought to ponder on, but that moment of suddenly being asked it really terrified me. If I was to be told that all the other planets, solar systems, galaxies (and even universes) don’t actually exist, it’s definitely something I would not find at all easy to accept. There was a time in my life that in my mind I spent more time out of this world than actually in it!

This brings me on to another aspect of Space I became completely obsessed with. And yes it was…Black Holes! I used to spend hours researching and then chatting to my friends about what could possibly be on other side of this incredibly mysterious phenomena which Scientists  themselves were still puzzling over. Through my research, I did stumble across the word ‘spaghettification’ many, many times. And of course, I couldn’t keep this to myself either. Some people I told were horrified by this idea, frightened by it and others blatantly refused to believe me…but for me learning this was truly exhilarating. It was something which I couldn’t understand and I really wanted to. I used to always say, “If only we could send something down there to see what’s on the other side…”; but of course the beauty of it was that anything that would come within a close proximity to it would be ‘spaghettified’ so to speak and therefore would never return to tell the rest of us what there was to see. This was something I used to think about an awful lot, I used to think about a really strong microscopic telescope which could be invented which could hopefully slip into the black hole without being affected by the super strong gravitational pull and could relay photographs back to us through some sort of immense mega signal. Impossible, clearly! But, that didn’t stop me…
I began to read into the Parallel Universe theories next. I had to know the secrets beyond the Black Hole! Surely, that’s what a Black Hole could lead to, another universe. As these thoughts came to my mind, another one as decided to join…what if a Black Hole took you outside the universe? WHAT?! How crazy is that?! I was completely mind-blown at this point…how can you be outside the universe? It’s just so bizarre…is it even possible to step outside the realm of existence? I’m sure there must have been a lonely point way back in history where people thought the Earth was all that existed, the idea of shooting up through the sky towards the stars would have been unfathomable…so who knows, anything can be possible. But, I continued searching for answers and decided to eventually settle on one which appeared to be a little more realistic (but nonetheless still crazily mind-blowing). Wormholes. Yep, Black Holes could be holes in the fabric of the universe allowing you to cross great distances across the universe within seconds. Now, I think this is something important to mention…as ridiculous as it may sound, I have never been a fan of Sci-Fi and I can’t imagine myself ever being (to be honest, I can’t stand the idea of watching Sci-Fi). All these concepts and ideas that I’m mentioning, I’ve come across purely through reading Scientific research and theories, none of these ideas (despite them probably being similar) have I picked up from the fabricated world of not-so-appealing Science fiction nonsense (sorry, alien fans).

So, that was my Black Hole mania at a somewhat rest, but I still truly loved the idea of there being a Parallel Universe, so I wrote a story. And I don’t mean a tatty page or two, but a really long ‘novella’ called ‘Following The Stars’ which is all about Black Holes and Parallel Universes. I’m sure you can imagine how much I enjoyed that. I was really living the dream…uncovering these secrets in a story (still doesn’t make me a Sci-Fi fan though, just a total Space geek). Now, this is where I reveal my first actual career aspirations. Beyond wanting to be a nurse in nursery and going through the typical phase of wanting to be a teacher in Primary School, my first actual aspiration was to become an astronaut. Now when I think of it the actual reasons why I wanted to become an astronaut was because of the mystery of not knowing. There’s a challenge to understand the unthinkable; a determination to grasp unknowable concepts…and with Space it’s always so unpredictable. Will you make it will you not? Will the Space shuttle land or not? Will you end up on the Moon or on Mars? Will you return, will you not? I loved it. Yes, sensibly thinking it is a little bit scary, it does require a lot of guts; but to me it was also unexplainably thrilling.

And it is these exact reasons which compell me to dedicate my life towards the medical profession…the challenge to understand and relate to each and every single person. The drive to learn about and overcome not black holes in this situation, but diseases such as Cancer and Alzheimer’s. The fact that each and every day you must be prepared to investigate the human body and discover what it is that makes an individual more or less susceptible to catching a disease. You must make predictions, occasionally take risks, consider the morality and legality of each action you take as well as delve deeper into the world of Science!