Friday 13th May 2016
Today was not a typical Friday 13th and it certainly was not an unlucky one. I went to the Natural History Museum in South Kensington, London, as I heard they have space themed events going on. I absolutely love anything to do with space and the universe, and have many books and documentaries on this topic. Luckily for me in the Attenborough Studio from 15:45 to 16:30 there was a space talk called "Exploring Space."
The Natural History Museum is prided on its collection of meteorites (rocks that have traveled through space and landed on Earth) and the collection is often studied by scientists around the world. The curator of this collection is Dr Caroline Smith and she was one the people taking part in this talk. She is a remarkable woman and the way she explained meteorites, where to find them, how to find them, and so on was so easy to follow and she did this in such a well presented, educated (yet humorous) manner.
Even more luckily for me on a typically unlucky day was the fact that we had Dr Ryan Zeigler in the country to join Dr Caroline Smith with this talk/interview. Zeigler has a very impressive job. He works for NASA, in their Johnson Space Center (Texas) as their Apollo Sample Curator, thus, his expertise sits with lunar samples. The center holds the samples brought back from the Apollo lunar explorations, which are all held in a facility that cannot be contaminated.
This talk/interview was so insightful and for a free event it was magnificent. I learnt so much in those 45 minutes and I am so glad that I went. The guests were funny and approachable and spoke in a way that anyone could understand. They did not use a ton of technical space jargon that would have left the viewers confused. I know some information on space, yet no where near as much as these great people, yet I followed their conversation with ease and was able to learn a great deal.
If another opportunity like this pops up, I will definitely go and I highly recommend it.
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