Beginnings

Beginnings is the de facto theme of 2010 for Beauty in the Universe. It sort of came about by accident really, but beginnings it is. We have begun our search for funding in earnest and have agreed several sources already, as always these things seem to take forever. We have begun a partnership with UCLAN, home of some of the smartest people I have ever met. We will work with them and their facilities to give students an experience to remember. We have something of a partnership with Sir Patrick Moore; he has sent us a letter of commendation. We have provisionally agreed to work with the Society for Popular Astronomy and that brings with it a connection to Jodrell Bank, a place I have been aware of for as long as I can remember. For five months' work, I think that is pretty damned impressive. We are now moving on to talking to Queen Guitarist Brain May, whom you may not be aware is a renowned astronomer and an expert on interstellar dust, and Sir Richard Branson who has recently founded Virgin Galactic.

Yesterday featured more beginnings. I delivered our first ever session in a local primary school to a class of forty year six students. The theme was... BEGINNINGS! The session featured an introduction with some cool pictures from the Hubble Space Telescope - that was such a joyous experience, to see how thrilled and utterly enthralled they were. We then conducted an experiment, followed by a long and in-depth discussion on the subject of Abiogenesis which was then neatly closed with the Clutching Stardust video. After that it was on to planetary accretion. We talked about Proplyds, nebulae and the creation of the Solar System. They lapped it up and I could have gone on all afternoon and they would have been fascinated.

Chalk one in the 'plus' column for Beauty in the Universe.