In 1977, the space probes Voyager I and II were launched, and they are still moving away from us, now beyond the bounds of the Solar System. Considering the chance that the probes may be found by interstellar life forms, they were each equipped with a "golden record" containing sounds and data that may be deciphered somewhere, sometime. That assignment fell to the project's creative director, Ann Druyan, and eminent astrophysicist Carl Sagan. The two colleagues fell in love while discussing the record by phone, and were married from 1981 until Sagan's death in 1996. That story is cute enough, and then there's this:
But the evidence of their love has taken on a life of its own. Not long after that serendipitous phone call, Druyan had an idea for the record: They could measure the electrical impulses of a human brain and nervous system, turn it into sound, and put it on the record. Then maybe, 1,000 million years from now, some alien civilization might be able to turn that data back into thoughts. So, just a few days after she and Sagan declared their love for each other, Druyan went to Bellevue Hospital in New York City and meditated while the sounds of her brain and body were recorded. According to Druyan, part of what she was thinking during that meditation was about "the wonder of love, of being in love."
The record of that data is still making its way through the cosmos. Read the entire story at NPR. -via Nag on the Lake
(Image credit: NASA)
