Aboard The International Space Station This Morning, Astronaut Kimiya Yui Of The Japan Aerospace Exploration

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Fig. 36. The Celestial Sphere. Geodesy, including astronomical observations, gravity measurements, and method of least squares. 1919.

The Milky Way in a beautiful image by Lincoln Harrison

One of the characteristics of successful scientists is having courage. Once you get your courage up and believe that you can do important problems, then you can. If you think you can’t, almost surely you are not going to. Courage is one of the things that Shannon had supremely. You have only to think of his major theorem. He wants to create a method of coding, but he doesn’t know what to do so he makes a random code. Then he is stuck. And then he asks the impossible question, “What would the average random code do?” He then proves that the average code is arbitrarily good, and that therefore there must be at least one good code. Who but a man of infinite courage could have dared to think those thoughts? That is the characteristic of great scientists; they have courage. They will go forward under incredible circumstances; they think and continue to think.

“You and Your Research,” Dr. Richard W. Hamming of Bell Labs (via ryanandmath)

The Milky Way in a beautiful photo by Luca Cruciani

Robonaut at JSC. nasa

Aurora from the ISS.

Photo credit: NASA

You should do your job in such a fashion that others can build on top of it, so they will indeed say, “Yes, I’ve stood on so and so’s shoulders and I saw further.” The essence of science is cumulative. By changing a problem slightly you can often do great work rather than merely good work. Instead of attacking isolated problems, I made the resolution that I would never again solve an isolated problem except as characteristic of a class.

“You and Your Research,” Dr. Richard W. Hamming of Bell Labs (via ryanandmath)

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A photo of Saturn. Took by Cassini with COISS on September 01, 2004 at 08:15:35. Detail page on OPUS database.