Guest author: Professor Esko Valtaoja – Free Mondays

Astronomer Esko Valtaoja examines the phenomena of our time in his own inimitable style. Interview conducted by Tuija Takala, MA.

“Our world is made up of countless overwhelmingly interesting things and the sometimes surprising connections between them.

‘There is an incessant influx of novelty into the world, and yet we tolerate incredible dulness,’ lamented Henry Thoreau a hundred years before I was born. I have an incredibly low tolerance for boredom, which is one of the reasons why this book exists. If these writings manage to alleviate someone else’s boredom as well, then I have not been typing them for nothing.

No text should be the last word, but rather the first; a spark that sets alight new thoughts in the reader.”

Esko Valtaoja is Professor Emeritus of Astronomy at the University of Turku and former Director of the Tuorla Observatory. Valtaoja is also well known as a populariser of science. His book Kotona maailmankaikkeudessa won the Tieto-Finlandia Prize in 2002.

Discussion language: Finnish