"Like many people in this field, I've been fascinated since I was a kid. I think I was five or six when my parents gave me this massive book with a black cover and pictures of the planets. It was like an atlas of the Solar System. I remember being mesmerized by Jupiter and its moons. I'd stare at the page and memorize the masses and radii, then rush outside with my little telescope to find Saturn or Jupiter."
"Kipping: Yeah, it was an escape but also an inspiration. Later, in high school, a fantastic teacher named Mr. Fox fed me books on physics - John Gribbin, Schrödinger's Cat stories, even Mr. Tompkins in Wonderland. That got me into particle physics for a while. The idea that neutrinos were flying through me every second blew my mind."
David Kipping studies exoplanets, technosignatures, and the search for life while producing the Cool Worlds YouTube channel and teaching at Columbia. Kipping attended the 2018 NASA technosignature meeting where NASA signaled openness to funding research on intelligent life. Early fascination began at age five or six with an atlas-like book of the Solar System and childhood telescope observations of Jupiter and Saturn. High school exposure to physics books from teacher Mr. Fox sparked interest in particle physics and concepts like neutrinos. Kipping balances cutting-edge research with in-depth science communication, addressing the challenges of explaining complex subjects in the YouTube era.
Read at Big Think
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