A Little Knowledge...

I was never any good at science in school. I took the bare minimum number of classes required to graduate high school, then did the same in college. And, I did my best to retain none of what little I was supposed to learn.

Recently this has begun to feel like a shortcoming, which is why I decided to read Bill Bryson's A Short History of Nearly Everything, a book written for science morons such as myself. I haven't learned much from it, but what I have learned has me wishing I hadn't. In fact, it has me huddled in a fetal position in the corner of my office.

Here's what I've learned: Our solar system consists of one star, along with an ever-changing number of planets, some moons, and a whole bunch of space detritus. It is part of a galaxy called the Milky Way, which consists of somewhere between 200 and 400 billion stars. Billion. That is not a typo. Billion. See? Not a typo.

The Milky Way is one of approximately 140 billion galaxies which, I assume, are more or less the same size as the Milky Way, give or take a few hundred thousand light years. Once again, billion. 140 billion, by the way, is the number of frozen peas it would take to fill Carnegie Hall from floor to ceiling, wall to wall. Just in case you were wondering about that.

What this means is not only are we entirely insignificant in the Grand Scheme of Things, but also that our feeble minds are completely incapable of truly comprehending just how insignificant we are.

I'm going to put the book down now and go watch some Spongebob Squarepants.