Mental note: Don't take Astronomy next term. Too much talking (and not her doing it) and too much thinking (unfortunately that one she had to do). Eh, who was she kidding, she'll be here next year.

"I...think it's cool to know about how big the universe is or whatever." Ellie said. "But... I wouldn't necesarily want to know about it. Leave it to be a bit mysterious. I wouldn't feel insignificant and small, just..." Confused, as she is now? "Overwhelmed." Hah. A smart sounding word for confused.

Merlin's beard, this was some deep discussion. But, honestly, Vashti enjoyed it, though she could only do so without trying to take notes. If she attempted writing all of this down while the others spoke, there was no way she was going to get it all, let alone even understand it, which was why her quill had barely moved at all. She only hoped she wouldn't fail the final exam because of her lack of note-taking.

As she tried to gather her thoughts, she listened carefully to each of the others, chewing her lower lip thoughtfully. Finally, she raised her hand. "I agree with the 'it makes me feel small and insignificant' part, but not so much the 'I don't want to learn about it' part. Because even though it does make us feel this way, I think that means we need to learn about it all the more. Seeing what we can of our universe, how big it is, it puts things into perspective, which I think a lot of people need. It shows us that the universe doesn't revolve around us, we aren't the center of the universe, and we aren't as important as we try to make ourselves out to be." She paused for a moment. "I mean, we are important, I guess, but not as much as we think we are sometimes. It's kind of...humbling, I guess. Because whatever - or whoever, depending on your views I guess - created all this or set it all into motion is obviously greater than we are."

Once she was done, Vashti let her hand fall back down to her side, quite hoping that she'd made sense and wasn't completely off topic. She'd never given such a long answer to a question before. Felt kinda good, actually.

OOC: No clue why the image was/is not working. Even after reuploading... :/
I've uploaded it again in a different album. Try clicking? :$

Short of belting it over its mechanical head, Risu had tried everything he could think of to get the projector working, but his carefully selected images would not show. He gave up, making a mental note to exchange projectors during the holidays, and wandered back to the front of the class, listening to the students.

And he was impressed. He knew that his lesson was complex, relying very little on easy-to-remember science and more on philosophical ideas. But the discussion was lively, and everyone of the students had something worthwhile to contribute.

"Perhaps," he said slowly as the last student had finished, "the awareness of our comparatively, er, minute size in the context of the cosmos is something to, if not celebrate, then at least appreciate. And I would say that striking a dividing line between humanity on the one side and the rest of the Universe on the other is simplistic and inaccurate. Apart from the three lightest elements on the periodic table, hydrogen, helium, and lithium - that last one only in trace amounts - all chemistry in the Universe is propelled by the stars."

He pointed at himself. "Which is to say, the molecules inside my body... or yours... are the end result of large numbers of massive stars exploding and scattering their remains across space, eventually ending up right here." Risu spread out his arms and smiled. "Not much time left in this lesson, but I wonder what you think of these, er, metaphysical ramblings of mine."

I think I need to go to the hospital wing for a headache. This was why Astronomy was not his best subject. But he really did have to ask this one thing. "Sir, do you mean to say I'm made up of the remains of a star?" This was just too much. He really did need to go to the hospital wing after this.

Risu nodded. "For a certain, shall we say, poetic interpretation of the word 'remains', you definitely are, Mr Marius," he said. "The initial expansion of the Universe - what is called the Big Bang - only produced a few elements. The lightest three on the periodic table. No coincidence, of course."

He looked around, but noticed that of the things pinned to the walls, the periodic table of elements was not among them. He made a mental note to correct this for next term. "Which I could show you if I actually had a table here." Risu sighed. "Oh, well. At any rate, the scientific details are not important at this point - unless you want to know, of course -as they are something to be discussed in full during a proper lesson, but most other elements are manufactured in stars in a series of chemical reactions." He paused. "And so, while there is no way to pinpoint a specific molecule in your body as having come from this or that star, of course, you can safely say that, for example, the entirety of the nitrogen in your body came from stars."

OMG! They were their own stars. MWAHA! Yea, she was toootaallly claiming herself.

Mmhhmm, something about a pogo table of elements, uh huh. She was a bit too distracted to really listen in since she was drawing herself as a star in her notebook. Now THAT was something she could learn about. Bet that would make Destiny happy. She knew her friend wanted to be some actress or whatever, so now, she literally could be...a STAR!

Bahaha! Alright, back to focusing on the lesson. Nilon. Right.

Eirian listened to the professor, jotting down a few mentions of what he said on her hand in Portuguese. She hadn't as much brought a notebook (mostly because she wasn't expecting to learn) and instead just decided to keep it in her mind and on her made-out-of-a-star hand. "Zis is because no elements are made or unmade, right, professor?" she asked. "Just like energy... But 'ow did ze matter from stars manage to form life? Stars are interesting, but zey 'old no life in zem..."

OOC: I fixed the image. Hope that's okay. ^.^


That had been Gold's point. "Nature recycles," she said quietly, hand in air. "The universe loans us who we are and, when it wills, takes back what it chose to bestow upon us."

She paused, and then picked up her string of thoughts, again, "When I hadn't started at Hogwarts, sir, my father gave me a set of the Upanishads. There's something written in there, that I didn't understand back then. It was -" Her voice suddenly acquired that known-by-heart touch, the kind it adopted whenever she repeated something that she had not only read, but pondered on, consumed until she had thoroughly digested it, even considered a principle and lived by -- "'I am the food, I am the eater, I am the link in between. I am this world, and I eat this world. Who knows this, knows.' I thought it was a babble, then, and it made no sense. But it refers to the universe, as I came to understand with time. We are its children, dependent upon it, nurtured by it, and made to return to it -- and it has so many that, in the grand scale of things, we - with all of our intellect, logic and rationalism - may be no more important than a block of frozen ice, wandering aimlessly in space. In fact, we may even, ultimately, be of far less significance."

"My point is, sir, that we are no more than stardust. What sets us apart is our ability to reason but, in the end, sometimes you have to wonder if reason is enough. The universe defines what we can achieve, and what we cannot. When we achieve a victory that we thought we could never have, we only defeat our own limitations - never the universe's. In the end, our world is only a little stitch in the fabric of the universe, and even that is a stitch born out of the remains of another stitch. The only invariant, in my opinion, is true essence. One can call energy the sole reality, because - a Law of Permanence - when it makes, it can make us; but when we break, we cannot break it. Its stream, unlike us, is endless. We, for all that we are and can be, might only be considered as material recycled, or material to be recycled."

"The thought is, for me, as driving as it is humbling - if our planet is a stitch in the fabric of the universe, then we are nothing --- and, if 'nothing' can achieve as much as we have, we can only imagine, or perhaps not even imagine, what something can."

THIS. BLOWS. MY. MIND.

The first people were made of... old star molecules? But then I wouldn't have any in me, since I am many generations removed and new material is made for new babies, right? This was so confusing.

PSSH. "And here I was, thinking I came from my mommy's tummy..." said Ellie. So, she just APPEARED out of NOWHERE?!

Really, 1st years could be so cute sometimes, but it is pretty cool to think that most of our bodies is made of star dust particles.

"Well..." Risu pursed his lips thoughtfully. "Elements can be created synthetically, in laboratories for example. And turning one element into another is fairly simple, at least on the face of it. It merely involves changing the number of protons in its nucleus. Something which sounds simple in theory but is very hard to do in practice. To the eternal disappointment of the alchemist."

He leaned back against his desk. Now that the projector did not work, he did not need his wand either. "The question of life arising from non-life is a very interesting one with a lot of speculative answers to it. These belong to a different scientific field, however, that of biopoesis. Also called abiogenesis." Risu spread out his hands. "Not something I can pretend to know much about. I am able to watch from the sidelines as an engaged and interested amateur, that is all. As an astrophysicist, however, I do know where the elements that make up all life on Earth came from. The answer being the stars."

Risu smiled. "Well, you did. So did I, I assume, although I guess I've had to take my mother's word for it." He paused. "She should know, of course," he said, and waved a hand. "At any rate. You, and every other human being have of course been born in the tried-and-tested way, but the atoms inside your body - and, of course, that of every other human being, and animal, and plant - have come from stars that vanished billions of years ago."


OOC: That's fine. <3 I figured I'd just leave it since it was a page back.

Risu pointed to Gold. His arm slowly sunk back down to his side again as he listened, eyes slightly glazed over. Whatever problems Gold had about speaking in public, they were completely out of place. Perhaps it was just the way she spoke - something about which reminded Risu vaguely of himself at a younger age, just starting off in his field - but he had to stop himself from applauding when the girl had finished.

"Erm... very well said, Miss Laksh," he said lamely. "Very lyrical." He smiled a little smile. "We are, then, what happens if you give hydrogen atoms 13 billion years."

His face brightened up. "And on this introspective note, I believe we are done with this lesson! I very much appreciate all your input. It can't have been easy, but with today, we finish our excursion into some of the more philosophical and theoretical underpinnings of astronomy. These will be a solid ground to base our work during the next term on when, if things go as planned, we will discuss matters much more grounded in science."

Risu paused briefly, seemingly calculating. He glanced outside. "No homework either, I should think," he announced finally. "With your exams, Quidditch..." - his old house had made it to the championship game - "not to mention this challenging lesson, I suppose you deserve a little break. Any questions before you are off to enjoy the sunshine?"

Hmm, she should sooo get one of those sugar quills. It could come in handy for any lessons that ended up like this. Making her brain go all mushy. Like that one Arithmancy lesson.

Her mind began to wander as people were speaking their thoughts and questions. Hmm, what should she wear for the Quidditch game coming up? Or, more importantly, where was Josh? She hadn't seen him in forever...

OH! Class was over? Sitting up and nooooow paying attention, Evelyn looked around until her gaze finally settled on the professor, and his words finally registering in her brain. No homework? Well that was a huuuuuge relief. The last few they had were enough to make her just, rip up the papers and throw them into the lake. No matter! She would eventually get used to this Astronomy class and perhaps one day understand it all.

Packing up her things, Evelyn slumped in her seat, not having any questions in mind to ask at the moment. And if she did, she might as well come back later to ask them. It was sunny outside! Too good to miss.

Lyrical? Gold sunnnnkkk lower and lower in her seat, and disappeared from sight. Professor Antares was making fun of her! Maybe she could hide under her desk, until this lesson ended. But no, she was a Prefect. If she hid under the desk, who knew who else might choose to follow her example, and then she could be called out.

She peeked out from under her desk.

Professor Antares was dismissing everybody! But he had asked if they had questions. Gold had a gazillion ones in that red!head of hers, but she wasn't about to ask. She went back to hiding, hoping that someone would ask a question. Then, when the Professor's attention was focused on the question-ask'er, Gold decided she would quickly sneak out.

But for now, she was going to hiiide.

Alex shook her head, she didn't have any questions.. infact she really wanted to retreat from the class so now that it was ending she could. She packed up her belongs after making sure she had everything down and waited for the Professor to dismiss them.

Patroclus wrote some more quick notes, even though their was no homework he was need to know this next year, and besides he was planning on working on this subject over the holidays.

He had had struggled a little this lesson, he hope it had just been from a fried brain due to his current work load but there was no way he could be sure.

Placing his thing back into his bag, the boy who was now made of stars, got up, and headed towards the door, "Thanks Professor, I will try and keep up next term!" the star-boy smiled.

Keefer had lots of questions, but didn't even know what they were at this point. So how could Antares answer them? He settled for a statement. "Thanks Professor, you've given me a lot to ponder over the holidays." Wow. Astronomy was a lot more complicated than he had thought. Brain still buzzing, he began to pack his things, ready to head out to the grounds for some serious contemplation.

Nope. Didn't make sense. How could she have come from the INSIDE of her mommy's tummy and made of STARS at the same time? How were stars INSIDE her mum's stomach?! Ellie idly shook her head. This was going to give her a headache. ANOTHER one. And here she was thinking they'd decrease in frequency while she was at Hogwarts...

"That was confusing." she said simply.

Questions?

Yes.

Xylon raised a hand. "I have a question, sir." He paused. "Why on earth is Prefect Laksh hiding under her seat?"

Now that that was out of the way....... "I was wondering professor, what we know about the universe, about celestial bodies that aren't the earth, is mostly conjecture isn't it?"

How do you validate laws based on conjecture?

"Oh, you've done well this term, and I'm sure you'll continue your good work when the next one comes around too," Risu said with a smile as the students filed past him out of the classroom, beginning their long descent to their common rooms.

"I dare say that's what I was trying to achieve," Risu said, still smiling.

He nodded a few times. "Astronomy is confusing, no doubt about it. But now that we've laid the foundation over the course of this term, the next lessons, while more technical, should be a little easier to grasp, Miss Stone."

"Erm... I don't know!" Risu peered under the prefect's table. "Maybe Miss Laksh was flattened by the gravity - not to say gravitas - of her own thoughts."

He pursed his lips. "Conjecture? How do you mean, Mr Saar? All celestial objects are directly observable, and their physical properties are determined by more or less well-understood laws and calculations, as in any other field of science. Naturally, the closer we get to the boundaries of our current knowledge, the less certain we are about what we know - although," he added with a slight smile, "you should approach all of science with a healthy sense of doubt, as we have seen."

Hmm? Done? Darn.

Astronomy class was so... eye-opening. Errr, philosophically interesting. Sort of, mind-boggling in a good way. Abby loved it, letting everything they discussed in the class just siiiiiink in.

She got up and picked up her things. "Thanks, professor, for a great year. The things we discuss in your class always holds strong in my mind for some time after it's ended," she said. She turned to leave, but stopped mid-turn and looked back at Professor Antares.

"I do have on question, though. It's kind of an opinion question." She paused, wondering if her question was going to make sense, and not just only in her head. "I've always thought that the idea of throwing junk into space as a solution to the growing amount of garbage being produced on Earth as a terrible idea. It's strange to be getting rid of things that seemingly have justalways been on this planet. It's like throwing away the Earth itself, in a sense. But today we talked about how everything in the universe is essentially recycled. Nothing, I suppose, is destroyed or created." Ick, raaaamble. She shrugged. "Well, that means that my idea from before is pretty much canceled out. So, I guess my real question is, what's your opinion of it all?"

SHE HAD BEEN SPOTTED!

Gold wanted to run, run, run. Professor Antares had called her answer lyrical, and Xylon had spotted her. It had to be the red hair. Gosh, she needed to dye it blue or wear a CAP, when she attended the next astronomy lesson. Would it, she reflected, be safe to continue to hide under here? No, she decided. She wasn't hidden here, anymore.

Because she had been hunted out.

She peeked out, from under her desk. "I'm not hiding," she declared solemnly. "I'm a tree." That should convince them it wasn't her, hiding here. She quickly went back to hiding, hoping against hope that someone else would ask a question, so that she could grab her schoolbag and make a rush for the door.

Or maybe slowwwly sneak out, so that no one would know.

Must. Keep. Eyes. Open.

"More... TECHNICAL?!" Ellie asked. This was pretty technical enough, wasn't it? What with the babies turning into stars and allll the other stuff they've learned this year. And about the thingy with the sun and how you measured Earth's circumfirence.... or something. She didn't even remember THAT!! How was she supposed to remember six more years of this?! And getting more technical? She wasn't sure, a thesaurus could be useful, but she didn't think technical and easy went together...

"My opinion on ferrying garbage into space?" Risu asked. He paused to think. "Er, well... I guess if we were very close to being drowned in trash, it could be a short-term solution." He shrugged. "But I don't think it's a very good one. We should be trying to figure out ways to stop this problem from even cropping up in the first place. And I can think of any number of drawbacks to this interplanetary junkyard scheme."

He counted on his fingers. "One, it would take a ton of rockets to send everything into space. Which, of course, would first have to be transported to the launch pad... Dangerous materials such as, say, radioactive waste, could not be sent into space - the environmental impact if such a rocket exploded, for example, would be catastrophic. And, hmm... The rockets themselves would have to have enough fuel to get them away from the planet and out into space. And we'd better hope," he added with a slight smile, "that there is no intergalactic policing system in place to stop a species such as ours littering the Milky Way."


Risu raised his arms in a consolatory gesture. "Don't panic, please, Miss Stone. I am quite sure you - and everyone else- will be able to cope with the coursework. It might be more technical, but much more straightforward to learn and comprehend as well."

He frowned. "But perhaps you could explain to me... in a non-technical way, preferably, why Miss Laksh over there thinks she's of the arboreal persuasion. Miss Laksh, do you need to go to the nurs-," he shook his head, "the Hospital Wing?"

Abby nodded. That was exactly her thinking. But now she wondered.

"Okay. But I suppose if the junk were to be blown up somewhere out there by a collision or something, I thought maybe it'd just be recycled like the stars. They'd become a part of us," she said. Alright. She had taken up enough of the professor's time. Oh boy, she should have piped up while class was actually taking place. She adjusted the strap of her bag on her shoulder and looked back up at Professor Antares. "Well, thank you again professor. It's been a lovely year."