12/01/18

Across the endless realms of the sands of time, humans have gaped at the sky to determine when to plant crops and to regularly attempt to answer questions concerning the nature of reality and our existence in the infinite cosmos. Astronomy, being a universal discipline, leads to the broadening of our critical thinking vision, gives fundamental context to our actuality in the universe and leads to transformation of how we see the world. Upon the prominent claim of Copernicus that Earth was not the centre of the universe, a revolution was prompted – a revolution that led to the acceptance of this new global notion by the society.

At Lahore Science Mela 2018, you will peek at your own existence amidst the infinite cosmos as you gaze through the sunny sky via a telescope. You will be given the chance to be in touch with the beautiful subject of astronomy via hands on experience. You will get a chance to peer at the cosmos with a universal and cosmic attitude.  You will certainly be awed by the view of the heavenly sky.

 

You are born a stranger to this world, having inadvertently hitched a ride on a vehicle whizzing across a road of unimaginable length and unparalleled grandeur. The vehicle is the Earth and the road is the Cosmos, and your journey on it represents a tiny part of the collective human voyage; one spanning hundreds of thousands of years of modern human existence. Like you, billions of others have been a part of this hitch. Like them, you have but borrowed time, until you are inevitably dropped off too. Since humanity embarked on its journey, its history has only covered a minuscule part of the cosmic calendar. We have made exhilarating and unpredictable discoveries over the past few millennia and, as Carl Sagan puts it, been reminded that humans have evolved to wonder; that understanding is a joy itself. We crave for truth, yearn to know, understand and appreciate and we still have a lot to unravel. The discovery of the mathematical framework that presides over all of nature – a universal poetry of reality – has helped us perceive a harmony between the machinery of nature and the way we think. It is the device that has helped 15 billion years of cosmic evolution awaken to a level of greater awareness, to a sense of belonging to the grand cosmos, to a desire to trace its own fantastic journey. This is, indeed, the manifestation of a universe grown to know itself. ^[1]

 

^[1]Excerpt from The Cosmic Hitchhikers’ article ‘We, the Cosmic Hitchhikers’ written by Kamran Naveed and Saif Ullah Khan. (https://thecosmichitchhikers.wordpress.com/2017/08/18/first-blog-post/)

 

The authors are A-levels students at Lahore Grammar School, Johar Town.

Saif Ullah Khan

Kamran Naveed Syed