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Astronaut shares the profound 'big lie' he realized after seeing the Earth from space

This change in perspective could change humanity.

via Rubén Moreno Montolíu/Flickr

Our home, from space.

Sixty-one years ago, Yuri Gagarin became the first human to make it into space and probably the first to experience what scientists now call the "overview effect." This change occurs when people see the world from far above and notice that it’s a place where “borders are invisible, where racial, religious and economic strife are nowhere to be seen.”

The overview effect makes man’s squabbles with one another seem incredibly petty and presents the planet as it truly is, one interconnected organism.

In a compelling interview with Big Think, astronaut, author and humanitarian Ron Garan explains how if more of us developed this planetary perspective we could fix much of what ails humanity and the planet.

Garan has spent 178 days in space and traveled more than 71 million miles in 2,842 orbits. From high above, he realized that the planet is a lot more fragile than he thought.

“When I looked out the window of the International Space Station, I saw the paparazzi-like flashes of lightning storms, I saw dancing curtains of auroras that seemed so close it was as if we could reach out and touch them. And I saw the unbelievable thinness of our planet's atmosphere. In that moment, I was hit with the sobering realization that that paper-thin layer keeps every living thing on our planet alive,” Garan said in the video.

“I saw an iridescent biosphere teeming with life,” he continues. “I didn't see the economy. But since our human-made systems treat everything, including the very life-support systems of our planet, as the wholly owned subsidiary of the global economy, it's obvious from the vantage point of space that we're living a lie.”

It was at that moment he realized that humanity needs to reevaluate its priorities.

“We need to move from thinking economy, society, planet to planet, society, economy. That's when we're going to continue our evolutionary process,” he added.

Garan says that we are paying a very “high price” as a civilization for our inability to develop a more planetary perspective and that it’s a big reason why we’re failing to solve many of our problems. Even though our economic activity may improve quality of life on one end, it’s also disasterous for the planet that sustains our lives.

It’s like cutting off our nose to spite our face.

Actor William Shatner had a similar experience to Garan's when he traveled into space.

"It was among the strongest feelings of grief I have ever encountered," Shatner wrote. "The contrast between the vicious coldness of space and the warm nurturing of Earth below filled me with overwhelming sadness. Every day, we are confronted with the knowledge of further destruction of Earth at our hands: the extinction of animal species, of flora and fauna … things that took five billion years to evolve, and suddenly we will never see them again because of the interference of mankind."

man in white and black suit standing on white and blue floorPhoto by Yucel Moran on Unsplash

“We're not going to have peace on Earth until we recognize the basic fact of the interrelated structure of all reality,” Garan said.

However dire the situation looks from the surface of Earth, the astronaut has hope that we can collectively evolve in consciousness and wake up and embrace a larger reality. “And when we can evolve beyond a two-dimensional us versus them mindset, and embrace the true multi-dimensional reality of the universe that we live in, that's when we're going to no longer be floating in darkness … and it's a future that we would all want to be a part of. That's our true calling.”

This article originally appeared three years ago.

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Astronaut unlocks a new phobia with a demonstration of being stuck in mid-air on the ISS

It's like that nightmare where you run as hard as you can and can't get anywhere.

Photo credit: Canva

Few of us ever get to float in space, much less feel what it's like to be stuck in mid-air.

Humans have all kinds of fears, from reasonable to totally irrational. But one fear most of us may have never even considered is being stuck hovering in mid-air, in the middle of a room, unable to make our body move in one direction or another no matter how hard or how fast we move our arms and legs.

Why would we, after all? Gravity works perfectly well here on Earth and we know how to make our bodies move in accordance with the forces of physics. The vast majority of us would never find ourselves in the scenario described above, thankfully. Many people have had that dream where you're running as hard as you can and not getting anywhere, but doing it while suspended in space is a whole other level of nightmare fuel.

In a video that has repeatedly gone viral, an astronaut demonstrated what it's like to be trapped in mid-air in a video from the International Space Station (ISS) and it unlocked a new phobia for people.

from Damnthatsinteresting

Can you really get stuck in mid-air on the ISS?

As retired Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield explained in a 2011 Q & A after a 5-month stint on the ISS, it is possible to get stuck floating in the space station if you can't reach a wall to push yourself off from.

"Yes, it is—you can get stuck floating in the center of Node 1, where open space is biggest due to hatches on all sides," he wrote on Reddit. "But ISS has fans and forced air to mix and refresh the internal atmosphere, so there's always a small crosswind. Wait long enough, you'll get pulled to an air inlet."

So, you wouldn't be stuck like this forever but it might feel like it for a bit. One way to solve the problem if no one is around to help you would be to take off your clothes, wad them into a compact ball, and throw them, utilizing Newton's third law of motion to create a force that would propel you backward. Even the flailing around we see would move you incrementally in one direction if you repeat it long enough. You could also try blowing really hard, which would make for a very slow solution but would help you move a tiny bit. The only way to truly get stuck this way is for you to be nude with no air currents at all.

Of course, getting yourself into this mid-air hovering position in the first place is nearly impossible, since any momentum that pushed you into the middle of the room would move you out of it as well. You'd have to have your fellow astronauts purposefully put you in the center of Node 1 and hold you absolutely still before letting go in order to hover like that, which we see is exactly what happened in a longer version of this video. It's a fun experiment to watch, though, unless you're truly terrified of being stuck this way.

Zero gravity does weird things to the human body

Living on the ISS is strange, as our bodies aren't accustomed to a zero gravity environment. But the station has had people living there continuously since 2000 and we've learned a lot about what humans need to thrive without gravity. It's very important for astronauts on the ISS to exercise at least two hours daily, for instance, both for muscle and bone health.

astronaut exercising The ISS has special equipment to help astronauts maintain muscle strength in zero gravity.Photo credit: NASA

As NASA shares:

"NASA has learned that without Earth’s gravity affecting the human body, weight-bearing bones lose on average 1% to 1.5% of mineral density per month during spaceflight. After returning to Earth, bone loss might not be completely corrected by rehabilitation; however, their risk for fracture is not higher. Without the proper diet and exercise routine, astronauts also lose muscle mass in microgravity faster than they would on Earth."

NASA adds that eyesight can be impacted by the zero gravity environment as well.

"The fluids in the body shift upward to the head in microgravity, which may put pressure on the eyes and cause vision problems. If preventive or countermeasures are not implemented, crews may experience an increased risk of developing kidney stones due to dehydration and increased excretion of calcium from their bones."

The fact that humans can now live in space is a remarkable testament to our ability to innovate, and the more we learn about what lies beyond the bounds of our planet, the more possibilities we'll find for the future of humanity (just as long as we always help one another out when we find ourselves stuck running in place).

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School responded to a parent's book complaint by reading it aloud to the entire student body

What possible issue could a parent have had with this book?

Jess Piper/Twitter

Schools often have to walk a fine line when it comes to parental complaints. Diverse backgrounds, beliefs, and preferences for what kids see and hear will always mean that schools can't please everyone all the time, so educators have to discern what's best for the whole, broad spectrum of kids in their care.

Sometimes, what's best is hard to discern. Sometimes it's absolutely not.

Such was the case when a parent at a St. Louis elementary school complained in a Facebook group about a book that was read to her 7-year-old. The parent wrote:

"Anyone else check out the read a loud book on Canvas for 2nd grade today? Ron's Big Mission was the book that was read out loud to my 7 year old. I caught this after she watched it bc I was working with my 3rd grader. I have called my daughters school. Parents, we have to preview what we are letting the kids see on there."

The book in question, "Ron's Big Mission," highlights a true story from the childhood of Challenger astronaut Ron McNair, who had experienced discrimination as a child in South Carolina because he was Black. In 1959, when he was nine years old, McNair wanted to check out books at the library, but the librarian told him the library didn't loan books to "coloreds." McNair refused to leave the library until he was allowed to check out books. Rather than give him a library card, the librarian called the police, who ultimately convinced her to just let him check out books.

Seriously, what issue could this parent possibly take with such an inspiring story of a kid standing up to injustice and fighting for the right to educate himself? This was a child who single-handedly changed a library's racial segregation policy and grew up to be an astronaut—a genuine, real-life hero. What is there to take issue with? The parent didn't specify, so we're left to conjecture, but if there's any other possible reason than racism, I can't think of one.

Rockwood Education Equity and Diversity Director Brittany Hogan told KMOX News Radio that after hearing of the complaint, other parents responded immediately in the book's defense.

"They were saying this is amazing that they were buying copies of the book," Hogan said. "One of our parents came out and said she was going to purchase a copy for every second-grader at the elementary school that her children attends."

Hogan called McNair a hero and said, "He deserves to be celebrated. His story deserves to be told to our children. It's important that we continue to move in a space that embeds diverse curriculum."

And the school responded in the best possible way—by announcing the book was going to be read aloud to the whole student body via Zoom. That's how you shut down a bigot. Boom.

Here's Pond Elementary Principal Carlos Diaz-Granados reading "Ron's Big Mission" to students via Zoom and sharing why he thinks it's an important book for kids:

- YouTubewww.youtube.com

This article originally appeared two years ago.

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Science

Fact: NASA takes the best before-and-after photos. Here are 10 of them.

Our world is changing every day.

via NASA

Setiment in Louisiana

The city has started to take up more space than the natural environment.

All images from NASA.

San Antonio — home of the Alamo and the Spurs basketball team — had a population of just over 1 million people in 1991. Today, it's added another 400,000 people.

The above images are only a small set of the many pictures NASA released. Globally, there were a ton of other interesting sites, like entire lakes turning red in Iran, new islands being formed by ocean volcanoes, and dams flooding rainforests in Brazil.

The world — and our country — is constantly changing, and we play a part in that.

Sometimes nature changes us, such as people having to respond to floodwaters, but we also know humans affect the Earth as well. And while it's true that the Earth has gone through natural cycles, we know it's now happening faster than ever before.

As the Earth will continue to change, it's important to remain aware of how we affect the Earth — and how the Earth affects us.

This article originally appeared on 01.23.17

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Science

NASA says these 18 plants are the best at naturally filtering the air in your home

Breathe easy.

via NASA

Back in the late '80s, NASA was looking for ways to detoxify the air in its space stations. So it conducted a study to determine the most effective plants for filtering the air of toxic agents and converting carbon dioxide to oxygen.

In 1989, their results were published in a clean air study that provided a definitive list of the plants that are most effective at cleaning indoor air. The report also suggested having at least one plant per every hundred square feet of home or office space.

1. Dwarf Date Palm

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nasa

This change in perspective could change humanity.

It's like that nightmare where you run as hard as you can and can't get anywhere.

Can you really get stuck in mid-air on the ISS?

Zero gravity does weird things to the human body

What possible issue could a parent have had with this book?

Our world is changing every day.

NASA satellites continually monitor the Earth, snapping photos and sending information to researchers on the ground.

1. In May 2016, NASA's satellites picked up the devastating 2016 Fort McMurray wildfire.

2. The satellites also captured how landscapes eventually recover from fires, like in Yellowstone.

3. They saw drought shrink Utah's Great Salt Lake over the last 30 years ...

4. And they showed the Mississippi pouring over its banks in March 2016.

5. In West Virginia, surface mining reshaped mountaintops.

6. In Washington state, the Oso mudslide changed the Earth back in 2014.

7. In Louisiana, sediment carried by water created new land.

8. The images show Hurricane Isaac touching down in Louisiana.

9. And warming temperatures shrink Alaska's Columbia Glacier.

10. Meanwhile, our cities grew and expanded, like this image of San Antonio, Texas, shows.

The world — and our country — is constantly changing, and we play a part in that.

Breathe easy.

As children we watched a teacher and six astronauts explode on live TV, then went right back to class.

Prepare to feel so…very…tiny.