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Once there was a star,
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like everything else, she was born
grilled (?) to be about 30x
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the mass of our sun
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and lived for a very long time.
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Exactly how long?
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People cannot really tell.
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Just like everything in life,
-
she reached the end of her
regular star days
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when her heart, the core of her life,
exhausted its fuel.
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But that was no end.
-
she transformed into a supernovae,
-
and in the process, releasing a tremendous
of energy,
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outshining the rest of the galaxy,
-
and emitting, in one second,
the same amount of energy
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our sun will release in 10 days.
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And she evolved into another role
in our galaxy.
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Supernovae explosions are very extreme.
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But the ones that emit gamma rays
are even more extreme.
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In the process of becoming
a supernovae,
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the interior of the star collaposes
under its own weight.
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And it starts rotating ever-faster.
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Like an ice skater when pulling
their arms in close to their body.
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In that way, it starts rotating very fast
and it increases, powerfully,
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its magnetic field.
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The matter around the star
is dragged around,
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and some energy from that rotation
is transferred to that matter
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and the magnetic field is increased
even further.
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In that way, our star had extra energy
to outshine the rest of the galaxy
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in brightness and gamma ray emission.
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My star, the one in my story,
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became what is known as a magnetar.
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And just for your information,
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the magnetic field of a magnetar
is 1,000 trillionx
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the magnetic field of earth.
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The most energetic events
ever measured by astronmers
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carry the name Gamma Ray Bursts
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because we observe them as bursts
or explosions
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most strongly measured as gamma ray light.
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Our star, like the one in our story
that became a magnetar,
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is detected as a gamma ray burst
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through the most energetic
portion of the explosion.
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Yet, even though gamma ray bursts
are the stongest events
-
ever measured by astronomers,
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we cannot see them with our
naked eye.
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We depend, we rely on other methods
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in order to study this gamma ray light.
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We cannot see them with our
naked eye.
-
We can only see an itty bitty tinny
portion
-
of the electromagnetic spectrum
that call visible light.
-
And beyond that, we rely on other methods.
-
And as astronomers, we study a wider
range of light
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and we depend on other methods to do that.
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On the screen, it may look like this.
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You're seeing a plot,
-
that is a light curve.
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It's a plot of intensity of light
over time.
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It is a gamma ray light curve.
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Sighted astronomers depend on this
kind of plot
-
in order to interpret how this
light intensity changes over time.
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On the left, you will be seeing
the light intensity without a burst,
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and on the right, you will be seeing
the light intensity with the burst.
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Early during my career, I could also
see this kind of plot.
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But then, I lost my sight, I completely
lost my sight
-
because of an extended illness,
-
and with it, I lost the opportunity
to see this plot
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and the opportunity to do my physics.
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It was a very strong transition for me
in many ways.
-
And professionally, it left me
without a way to do my science.
-
I longed to access adn scrutinize
this energetic light
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and figure out the astrophysical cost.
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I wanted to experience the spacious
wonder, the excitement,
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the joy produced by the detection
of such a titanic celestial event.
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I thought long and hard about it.
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When I suddenly realized that all
a light curve is
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is a table of numbers converted
into a visual plot.
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So along with my collaborators,
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we worked really hard and we translated
the numbers into sound.
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I achieved access to the data,
-
and today I'm able to do physics
at the level of the best astronomer
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using sound.
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And what people have been able to do,
mainly visually,
-
for hundreds of years,
-
now I do it using sound.
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(Applause)
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Listening to this gamma ray burst
that you're seeing on the --
-
thank you --
-
that you're seeing on the screen,
-
brought something to the ear
beyond the obvious burst.
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Now I'm going to play the burst for you,
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it's not music, it's sound.
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(Sound of the plot)
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This is scientific data converted
into sound
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and it's mapped in pitch,
the process is called sonification.
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So listening to this brought something
to the ear
-
besides the obvious burst.
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When I examine the very strong
low frequency regions,
-
or base line,
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I'm zooming into the base line now --
or the baseline,
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we know that resonances that were
characteristic
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of electrically charged gasses
like the solar wind.
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And I want you to hear what I heard.
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You will hear it as a very fast
decrease in volume.
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And because you're sighted,
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I'm giving you a red line indicating
to you
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what intensity of light is being
converted into sound.
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(Sound)
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The (whistle) is frogs at home,
don't pay attention to that.
-
(Laughter)
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(Sound)
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I think you heard it, right?
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So what we found is that the bursts
last long enough
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in order to support wave resonances,
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which are things caused by exchanges
of energy between particles
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that may have been excited
that depend on the volume.
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You may remember that I said
that the matter around the star
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is dragged around?
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It transmits power with frequency
and field distribution that
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are ?? by the dimensions
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And you may remember that
we were talking about
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a supermassive star that became
a very strong magnetic field magnetar.
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If this is the case, then outflows
from the exploding star
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may be associated with this
gamma ray burst.
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What does that mean?
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That star formation may be
a very important part
-
of this supernovae explosion.
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Listening to this very gamma ray burst
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brought us to the notion that the use
of sound
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as a adjunctive visual display
-
may also support sighted astronomers
in the search
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for more information in the data.
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Simultaneously, I worked on analyzing
measurements from other telescopes
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and my experiments demonstrated
that when you use sound
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as an adjunctive visual display,
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astronomers can find more information
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in this now more accessible data set.
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And this ability to transform data
into sound
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gives astronomy a tremendous power
of transformation.
-
And the fact that a field that is
so visual may be improved
-
in order to include anyone with interest
what in heaven lies
-
is a spirit-lifter.
-
When I lost my sight,
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I noticed that I didn't have access
to the same amount
-
and quality of information
a sighted astronomer had.
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It was not until we innovated
with the sonification process
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that I regained the hope
of being a productive member
-
of the field that I have worked
so hard to be part of.
-
Yet, information access is not
the only area in astronomy
-
where this is important.
-
The situation is systemic
-
and scientific fields are not
keeping up.
-
The body is something changeable --
-
anyone may develop a disability
at any point.
-
And let's think about, for example,
scientists who are
-
already at the top of their careers,
-
what happens to them if they develop
a disability?
-
Will they feel excommunicated
as I did?
-
Information access empowers
us to flourish.
-
It gives us equal opportunities to display
our talents
-
and choose what we want to do
with our lives
-
based on interest and not based
on potential barriers.
-
When we give people the opportunity
to succeed without limits,
-
that will lead to personal fulfillment
and prospering life.
-
And I think that the use of sound
in astronomy
-
is helping us to achieve that
and to contribute to science.
-
While other countries told me
that the study of perception techniques
-
in order to study astronomy data
is not relevant to astronomy
-
because there are no bling astronomers
in the field,
-
South Africa said, "We want people
with disabilities
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to contribute to the field."
-
Right now, I'm working at the
South African Astronomical Observatory
-
at the office of Astronomy
for Development.
-
There, we are working on
sonification techniques
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and analysis methods
to impact the students
-
of the Athlone School for the Blind.
-
The se students will be learning
radio astornomy
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and they will be learning
the sonification methods
-
in order to study astronomical events
like huge ejections of energy
-
from the sun, known as
coronal mass ejections.
-
What we learned from these students,
-
these students have multiple disabilities
and coping strategies
-
that will be accomodating.
-
What we learn with these students
will directly impact
-
the way things are being done
at the professional level.
-
I humbly call this development,
-
and this is happening right now.
-
I think that science is for everyone.
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It belongs to the people,
-
and it has to be available
to everyone
-
because we are all natural explorers.
-
I think that if we limit people
with disabilities
-
from participating in science,
-
we'll sever our links with history
and with society.
-
I dream of a level
scientific playing field
-
where people encourage respect
and respect each other,
-
where people exchange strategies
and discover together.
-
If people with disabilities are
allowed into the scientific field,
-
an explosion, a huge titanic burst
of knowledge will take place,
-
I am sure.
-
(Sound of burst)
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That is the titanic burst.
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Thank you,
-
thank you.
-
(Applause)