Our speck in the cosmic darkness

The Daily Beast

Letter to the editor in today's NY Times:

Our Quest for Knowledge

Re With the Webb Space Telescope, Everyone Wins (Science Times, Feb. 1)

Thank you for Dennis Overbye's eloquent paean to the James Webb Space Telescope as an embodiment of humankind's insatiable quest for knowledge.

A fundamental aspect of human nature is to wonder how we came to be here. The Webb Space Telescope is to look back to the dawn of the universe more closely than any man-made instrument ever devised, potentially offering a glimpse at the formation of galaxies, stars and planets, and with it a better understanding of the origins of our own world, and perhaps of life itself.

As Carl Sagan observed, "Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark." Our investment of time and treasure to study the universe is a testament to the value we place on knowledge and our confidence in the amazing technological achievement of our scientists and engineers can produce.

Stephen A. Silver
San Francisco

On the other hand, see Earth: The lonely guy of the universe.