The Universe is full of awesome phenomena. It belongs to us all. Sometimes, however, it may feel to non-scientists that they aren’t a part of the amazing things we discover because of the language in which it is presented. Artists and educators are called upon to bridge the gap; an artist who is doing it with panache is Dan Goods of JPL.
As JPL’s “visual strategist,” Dan has worked over the last eight years to present the astrophysical concepts probed by the scientists and engineers of JPL to the public at large. With a degree in graphic design from the Art Center College of Design, Dan’s sculptural works both in Pasadena and abroad create intuitive metaphors for some of the most vast and complex concepts in the physical sciences today.
For example, try to imagine how many worlds our Universe might contain. “Billions and Billions!” perhaps (as Carl Sagan is often mistakenly quoted)?
That’s fine to say. Yet who besides maybe the Office of Management and Budget and Mark Zuckerberg really has an appreciation for what that quantity means? To get a better idea, visit “The Big Playground.” Goods has covered the floors of six rooms with sand, with approximately enough sand grains for each grain to correspond to a galaxy in the known Universe. You can tighten your grip and let the star systems slip through your fingers, keeping in mind that each grain contains hundreds of billions of stars. Then in a display case under a microscope, you see a single grain of sand with a .1 millimeter hole drilled in it. This represents where we have found over 130 planets within our own galaxy. Far. Out.
