Hello Again! I hope everyone is getting into the book because things are starting to get interesting. George was lucky enough to get to see the entire life cycle of a star on Cosmos. Did you know that stars are born, change over millions of years, and then die?! Not like something living of course, but they form out of clouds of gases and dust in space. Then they burn for as long as they have fuel, and then they go out – sometimes as a huge supernova explosion and sometimes just quietly shrinking as they lose energy. Even our sun, which is a small-to-medium sized star, will one day go out. Astronomers believe it was formed about 4.6 million years ago and it will eventually swell up into a red giant, then shrink and cool off until it goes out about 5 million years from now!
One of the things I thought was most interesting in this section of the book was the Oath of the Scientist in chapter 4. Reread it again quickly. Why do you think Cosmos wanted George to take this oath before he showed him the star? Do you agree with the oath? Would you have taken the oath if you were George? Should every scientist have to take this oath? Tell me what you think!
Until next week!
Jill
Laurie’s thoughts: In chapter 4, we’re introduced to Cosmos, the most powerful computer in the world. I wonder about this statement that he makes when first meeting George “I am (the most powerful computer in the world.) In the future, there will be computers more powerful than me. But there are none in the past or present.” How does Cosmos know what computers of the future will be like? How does anyone know? What do YOU think computers 50 years from now will look like? What will they be able to do?
I
n chapter 6, Dr. Reeper, George’s teacher, seems suspicious (not to mention VERY strict!) After confiscating George’s drawings from his universe exploration, Dr. Reeper didn’t seem too interested until George started to explain (hmmm—should he have done that? Didn’t he promise to keep Cosmos a secret?) This statement by Dr. Reeper was curious: “So it does work after all,” he half whispered to George. “And you’ve seen it. That’s amazing.” What does he know? How does he know it? Yikes! Back to the book so I can find out…..
