The Pale Blue Dot

Georges Henri Joseph Édouard Lemaître (17 July 1894 – 20 June 1966) was a Belgian Catholic priest, mathematician, astronomer, and professor of physics at the Catholic University of Louvain. In 1927, Lemaître published in Belgium a virtually unnoticed paper that provided a compelling solution to the equations of General Relativity for the case of an expanding universe.

By 1929, Edwin Hubble had shown that the distant galaxies all appeared to be receding from us at speeds proportional to their distances. Two years later, Lemaître explored the logical consequences of an expanding universe and boldly proposed that it must have originated at a finite point in time. If the universe is expanding, he reasoned, it was smaller in the past, and extrapolation back in time should lead to an epoch when all the matter in the universe was packed together in an extremely dense state.

Appealing to the new quantum theory of matter, Lemaître argued that the physical universe was initially a single particle—the “primeval atom” as he called it—which disintegrated in an explosion, giving rise to space and time and the expansion of the universe that continues to this day. This idea marked the birth of what we now know as Big Bang cosmology.

In the beginning... (Quantum Fluctuations)

There was a period in the very early universe—known as the "cosmic dark ages"—when elementary particles, formed in the Big Bang, had combined to form neutral hydrogen but no stars or galaxies existed yet to light up the universe. This period began less than half a million years after the Big Bang and ended with the formation of the first stars.

Cosmologists made deductions about the early universe based on the cosmic microwave background radiation, which was emitted about 400,000 years after the big bang. The uniformity of this radiation indicates that matter was distributed very smoothly at that time. Because there were no large luminous objects to disturb the primordial soup, it must have remained smooth and featureless for millions of years afterward. As the cosmos expanded, the background radiation redshifted to longer wavelengths and the universe grew increasingly cold and dark.

Cosmic Dark Ages

Astronomers have identified several overlapping bubbles of hydrogen gas ionized by the stars in early galaxies, a mere 680 million years after the Big Bang. This is the earliest direct evidence from the period when the first generation of stars formed and began reionizing the hydrogen gas that permeated the universe.

New models indicate that the first stars were most likely quite massive and luminous and that their formation was an epochal event that fundamentally changed the universe and its subsequent evolution. These stars altered the dynamics of the cosmos by heating and ionizing the surrounding gases. The earliest stars also produced and dispersed the first heavy elements, paving the way for the eventual formation of solar systems like our own. And the collapse of some of the first stars may have seeded the growth of supermassive black holes that formed in the hearts of galaxies and became the spectacular power sources of quasars. In short, the earliest stars made possible the emergence of the universe that we see today—everything from galaxies and quasars to planets and people.

First Stars

A nebula is a giant cloud of dust and gas in space. Some nebulae come from the gas and dust thrown out by the explosion of a dying star, such as a supernova. ... For this reason, some nebulae are called "star nurseries."

Stars are born within the clouds of dust and scattered throughout most galaxies. Turbulence deep within these clouds gives rise to knots with sufficient mass that the gas and dust can begin to collapse under its own gravitational attraction. As the cloud collapses, the material at the center begins to heat up. Known as a protostar, it is this hot core at the heart of the collapsing cloud that will one day become a star. While collapsing, a dense, hot core forms and begins gathering dust and gas. Not all of this material ends up as part of a star — the remaining dust can become planets, asteroids, or comets or may remain as dust.

Stardust (Clouds of Gas and Dust)

Our water:
Samples of the asteroid Itokawa sent back to Earth from Japan's Hayabusa probe are finally revealing their secrets - including the fact that they're rich in water. Cosmochemists have determined that asteroids like Itokawa bombarding Earth billions of years ago could have brought with them up to half the water in Earth's oceans.

This fresh look at an old problem – the origin of Earth’s water – has produced a surprising conclusion, one that suggests a large population of inner solar system asteroids might contain a lot more water than had been realized.

Our moon:
What is most widely accepted today is the giant-impact theory. It proposes that the Moon formed during a collision between the Earth and another small planet, about the size of Mars throwing vaporized chunks of the young planet's crust into space. Gravity bound the ejected particles together, creating a moon that is the largest in the solar system in relation to its host planet.

This sort of formation would explain why the moon is made up predominantly of lighter elements, making it less dense than Earth — the material that formed it came from the crust, while leaving Earth’s rocky core untouched.

Asteroids

The Cambrian explosion was an event approximately 541 million years ago when practically all major animal phyla started appearing in the fossil record. It lasted for about 13 – 25 million years and resulted in the divergence of most modern metazoan phyla. Within several million years, earth's simple ecosystem would disappear, and give way to a world ruled by highly mobile animals that sported modern anatomical features. It produced arthropods with legs and compound eyes, worms with feathery gills and swift predators that could crush prey in tooth-rimmed jaws.

Biologists have argued for decades over what ignited this evolutionary burst. Some think that a steep rise in oxygen sparked the change, whereas others say that it sprang from the development of some key evolutionary innovation, such as vision. The precise cause has remained elusive, in part because so little is known about the physical and chemical environment at that time.

The Cambrian Explosion

To provide a musical narrative on human nature, I decided to draw upon two interrelated stories: One from the book of Genesis which depicts the human struggle with good VS evil , and the other from an by an American author who often populated his stories with struggling characters. The story of Cain and Abel is from the Genesis 4:1-18 and East of Eden is by John Steinbeck.

In the biblical Book of Genesis, Cain and Abel are the first two sons of Adam and Eve. Cain, the firstborn, was a farmer, and his brother Abel was a shepherd. Cain murdered Abel, whereupon Cain was punished by condemning him to a life of wandering. Some traditional interpretations consider Cain to be the originator of evil, violence, or greed. According to Genesis, Cain was the first human born and Abel was the first to die.

The story of Cain and Abel is essential to understanding John Steinbeck's "East of Eden". Steinbeck wrote: "As I went into the story more deeply I began to realize that without the story of Cain and Abel—or rather a sense of it—psychiatrists would have nothing to do. In other words this one story is the basis of all human neurosis—and if you take the fall along with it, you have the total of the psychic troubles that can happen to a human."

As the narrator in Part Four of East of Eden says: "Humans are caught—in their lives, in their thoughts, in their hungers and ambitions, in their avarice and cruelty, and in their kindness and generosity too—in a net of good and evil. ...We have only one story. All novels, all poetry, are built on the never-ending contest in ourselves of good and evil. "

East of Eden

A 2016 study at the University of Southern California’s Brain and Creativity Institute found that musical experiences in childhood can actually accelerate brain development, particularly in the areas of language acquisition and reading skills. According to the National Association of Music Merchants Foundation (NAMM Foundation), learning to play an instrument can improve mathematical learning and even increase SAT scores.  

But academic achievement isn’t the only benefit of music education and exposure. Music ignites all areas of child development and skills for school readiness, including intellectual, social-emotional, motor, language, and overall literacy. It helps the body and the mind work together. Exposing children to music during early development helps them learn the sounds and meanings of words. Dancing to music helps children build motor skills while allowing them to practice self-expression. For children and adults, music helps strengthen memory skills.  

In addition to the developmental benefits, simply put: music bring us joy. Just think about listening to a good song in the car with the window down on a beautiful day. That's joy.

Child's Play

This work expresses pure emotions and feelings of love, fear, grief and regret, nostalgia for childhood and youth, memories of places and times that will not come back, memories of the loved ones. There are few people who take the time guide and nurture you. Somehow, they touch and guide you in ways that ultimately define your essence. They are the story of life, lost love, devotion, friendship, and family. They are unforgettable.

Memories of Love

Background:
This track appeared on my first CD, "At Peace Beneath the Shade of My Father's Tree", under the title of "Train to Dachau". The initial thematic material came to me while touring the infamous Dachau Concentration Camp Memorial Site. We took the train from Munich to Dachau, walked the remaining distance from the train stop to the camp, and made our way around the camp from barracks to open areas, crematorium, and museum. Trying to imagine the horror each prisoner felt as we walked through the barracks, a slow, dark theme kept repeating in my head. Later, while walking outside to the open area where the prisoners would assemble, a lighter, slightly more hopeful theme began to appear as through their souls were lifting above them; imagining the next world as well as remembering some of the happier times they enjoyed in better days.

At the time I worked on the initial production, I felt that the perspective I presented did not fully address the big picture of how we came to allow something like this to ever happen. Indeed, the horrors of hatred and war have plagued our species throughout history. Then Carl Sagan's "The Pale Blue Dot" speech began to repeat over and over, much like the initial thematic material did as I stood in Dachau. It added new perspective on the train, the camp, humanity, and the cosmos.

Voyager 1 and The Pale Blue Dot:
Thirty years ago, humanity got a chance to see itself in a whole new light. On Feb. 14, 1990, NASA's Voyager 1 probe snapped a photo of Earth from 3.7 billion miles (6 billion kilometers) away. The image shows our home planet as it truly is — a tiny, lonely outpost of life in an incomprehensibly vast cosmos — and became iconic as a result.

The Pale Blue Dot was the brainchild of famed astronomer, science communicator and Voyager imaging team member Carl Sagan, who first proposed snapping Earth with Voyager cameras in 1981. Earth was one of the last things Voyager 1 saw. The probe took the Pale Blue Dot photo at 0448 GMT on Feb. 14, 1990, just 34 minutes before its cameras were shut off forever.

Hello from Planet Earth:
Pictures were electronically placed on the phonograph records which are carried onboard the Voyager 1 and 2 spacecraft. The contents of the record were selected for NASA by a committee chaired by Carl Sagan of Cornell University, et. al. Dr. Sagan and his associates assembled 115 images and a variety of natural sounds, such as those made by surf, wind and thunder, birds, whales, and other animals. To this they added musical selections from different cultures and eras, and spoken greetings from Earth-people in fifty-five languages, and printed messages from President Carter and U.N. Secretary General Waldheim. Following the section on the sounds of Earth, there is an eclectic 90-minute selection of music, including both Eastern and Western classics and a variety of ethnic music.

The Pale Blue Dot - Train to Dachau Redux

Global warming is defined as a gradual increase in the overall temperature of the earth's atmosphere generally attributed to the greenhouse effect caused by increased levels of carbon dioxide, chlorofluorocarbons, and other pollutants.

We humans are the ones who burn fossil fuels and chop down forests, causing average temperatures to rise worldwide. That global warming trend is increasingly disrupting our climate — the average weather over many years. Earth has already warmed by about 1 degree Celsius, or 1.8 degrees Fahrenheit, since the 19th century, before industry started to boom. While we experience the effects, we’re on our way toward 1.5 degrees C (2.7 F) by as early as 2030. It's how you go from half-degree of warming to economic hardship.

A warmer world — even by a half-degree Celsius — has more evaporation, leading to more water in the atmosphere. Such changing conditions put our agriculture, health, water supply and more at risk. Climate change is already harming food production and these impacts are projected to increase over time, with potentially devastating effects. Higher temperatures, for example, could place further stress on water-scarce regions and make it harder to rear animals and grow food crops.

Our planet’s animal and plant species are under more pressure than ever before, with an increasing number on the brink of extinction. Scientists have called this unprecedented loss of species the Sixth Mass Extinction. The last mass extinction event marked the end of the dinosaurs.

Evidence is mounting that extinctions are altering key processes important to the productivity and sustainability of Earth’s ecosystems. As species disappear we lose both known and unknown benefits they provide. For instance, new research indicates that loss of biodiversity can release prominent carriers of human disease agents from predation and competition - a direct threat to us.

Global Warming

New age piano, soundtrack and piano music by Terry Lee Nichols
"When asked how he views himself as an artist, Terry states "I sense the world through sound. I communicate best through sound, compositions, and performances. Sound and music [are] the most powerful emotional forces in my life. I will work to be the best I can be at communicating my thoughts and opinions through music. Success, failure, or anything in between, this is my legacy."