Contact + Vocabulary Volume #2

"She had spent her career attempting to make contact with the most remote and alien of strangers, while in her own life she had made contact with hardly anyone at all. She had been fierce in debunking the creation myths of others, and oblivious to the lie at the core of her own. She had studied the universe all her life, but had overlooked its clearest message: for small creatures such as we the vastness is bearable only through love."

Carl Sagan, Contact

Contact is the novel behind one of my favorite movies of the same title. When I found out that the film was based off a novel, I made a mental note to read it, and was excited to spot a worn copy at the campus used book sale.

Although many decry the film for fabricating an entirely different ending plot twist, I have to give merit to the creative minds behind both versions. Though different, both endings offer that sense of closing satisfaction, while still leaving behind that tiny speck of what-if that characterizes great science fiction.

If you haven't seen the movie or read the book, I highly recommend it. It's an exciting adventure, as well as a thought-provoking exploration of personal spirituality in an open, non-religious sense.

The scientific nature of the novel's subject matter also makes for an interesting vocabulary volume:

organosilicate: being made of both silica and organic substances. silica is a compound known for its hardness, and is found in diatom cell walls.

subcodicil: supplementary content that explains, modifies, or revokes all or part of a will

naked singularity: a gravitational singularity without an event horizon

(uh... what??)

- gravitational singularity: central area within a black hole, where gravity is thought to be infinite

- event horizon: simply put, the 'border' of a black hole

arcana: secrets or mysteries

contact binary: a binary star system (two suns, like those seen from Tatooine) whose stars are so close that they appear or are actually touching

sundry: various small items that are not important enough to be listed out individually

reconnoiter: to make a military observation of a region; to scout out an area

ecdysiast: basically a fancy word for a stripper

eschatological: regarding the ultimate destiny of humankind and the world

punctilious: paying great attention to detail

samizdat: the clandestine copying and subsequent hand distribution of banned literatures, as in communist Russia