{"id":11070,"date":"2024-05-30T18:04:08","date_gmt":"2024-05-30T22:04:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/zobi.alcowep.com\/bourtagshdrevxnls658739\/the-moon-and-amaey-shah\/"},"modified":"2024-05-30T18:04:08","modified_gmt":"2024-05-30T22:04:08","slug":"the-moon-and-amaey-shah","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/zobi.alcowep.com\/bourtagshdrevxnls658739\/the-moon-and-amaey-shah\/","title":{"rendered":"The Moon and Amaey Shah"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Moon and Amaey Shah<\/h2>\n

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8 Min Read<\/div>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tThe Moon and Amaey Shah\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/h1>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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\"A<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Comparing two Lunar images using NASA\u2019s MoonDiff project. Join this project, and help search for new features on the Moon! <\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\t\tCredits: <\/span>
\n\t\t\t\t\t\tNASA\/JPL-Caltech<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Sometimes a story about a NASA volunteer just grabs your heart and won\u2019t let go. NASA Scientist Dr. Brian Day shared with us the incredible story of what first ignited his passion for involving the public in his scientific research. It\u2019s a story about a boy named\u00a0Amaey\u00a0Shah.<\/p>\n

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\"A<\/a><\/figure>
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Amaey Shah\u2019s passion for science helped inspire NASA\u2019s MoonDiff Project.<\/div>\n
Credit: Purvi Shah<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cThrough the NASA Speakers Bureau, I was paired with a local teacher, Leslie Herleikson, and her after-school science program for K-12 students\u201d Brian began. \u00a0\u201cI\u2019d talk to the students in the program periodically and take them on tours of the NASA Ames facilities.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the kids in Leslie\u2019s elementary program, a young boy named\u00a0Amaey\u00a0Shah, was recovering from treatment for childhood leukemia when I first met him. He was feeling fatigued from the treatment. As we did the tours of Ames he sometimes had to rest.\u00a0 But he was a very precocious kid. He remained very excited about science, posing a rapid stream of very insightful questions, and always full of joyous enthusiasm for the new things that he would learn.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Over time,\u00a0Amaey\u00a0rallied and\u00a0his strength improved, fueled by his insatiable curiosity. I continued to meet with\u00a0Amaey\u00a0and his fellow students, with our discussions spanning the Solar System and beyond.<\/p>\n

Then,\u00a0one day,\u00a0I showed up at the after-school program and\u00a0Amaey\u00a0was not there. Leslie took me aside after my presentation and let me know that\u00a0Amaey\u00a0had had a relapse which seemed pretty serious. He was going to need a bone marrow transplant. This news hit me especially hard. Shortly before the class meeting, I had been diagnosed with cancer myself.\u00a0 Just as\u00a0Amaey\u00a0was going to be heading in for whole body radiation as part of his bone marrow transplant, I was going to be going in for radiation for my own cancer treatment.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Leslie shared my situation with\u00a0Amaey\u00a0and his parents. She also asked if I would be willing to come talk with him about our upcoming shared experience.\u00a0 The idea seemed strangely comforting and healthy. So I showed up at his house.\u00a0Amaey\u00a0and I sat down together, with his parents and older brother sitting off to the side in the same room.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

I said: Well, I understand we have something in common.<\/p>\n

He said, Well, we both like science!<\/p>\n

I said: That\u2019s true.<\/p>\n

He said: And we both wear glasses.<\/p>\n

I said:\u00a0 Yes.<\/p>\n

Then,\u00a0I\u00a0said: And we\u2019re both incredibly handsome!<\/p>\n

We all had a good laugh. But then he looked at me and got serious.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He said: And we both have cancer.<\/p>\n

I said: Yes, and we\u2019re both going to get radiation.<\/p>\n

And he said: Yeah.<\/p>\n

So I said: How do we feel about that?<\/p>\n

He told me what was bothering him most. He said that in his case, the radiation was to kill all of his bone marrow, and hopefully the cancer that was within it.\u00a0 Then he would get a transplant of new bone marrow.\u00a0 But during the period of time in between losing his old bone marrow and when his new bone marrow kicked in, he would essentially be without an immune system. He would become a bubble boy\u2014confined to a room for a very long period of time.\u00a0 He expressed that he was really going to miss going out and exploring, going out and looking up at the night sky, because one of the things he really, really wanted to do was explore space.<\/p>\n

I\u2019d been given a warning about this from his parents, so I\u2019d come prepared with my laptop. I pulled up MoonZoo.\u00a0 MoonZoo was a citizen science application that asked people to look at pieces of lunar real estate and identify and count craters. Crater counts are the primary way of estimating the ages of various lunar terrains. If we want to understand the history and evolution of the lunar surface, getting these crater counts and the ages they represent is a really critical endeavor.<\/p>\n

Amaey\u00a0was quite excited to work on MoonZoo.\u00a0 We played with that for a long while!\u00a0 Then I pulled up GalaxyZoo, another Zooniverse project.\u00a0<\/p>\n

We reviewed the fact that galaxies come in a great variety of sizes and shapes.\u00a0 And we see a mind-bending number of galaxies out there. To understand their formation and evolution, we must first understand what kinds of galaxies they are. So, we need people to help classify these galaxies\u2014which involves looking at a lot of galaxies.\u00a0\u00a0Amaey\u00a0really liked that too.<\/p>\n

We went into our respective cancer treatments.\u00a0Amaey\u00a0did indeed become confined in isolation after his irradiation and transplant\u2014but I heard from his teacher Leslie that from his room he was keeping himself busy exploring the Moon, counting craters with MoonZoo, and classifying galaxies with GalaxyZoo.\u00a0 Even though\u00a0Amaey\u00a0was physically confined to his room, his intellect and curiosity were free to roam the Solar System and the Universe, exploring limitless expanses, thanks to the citizen science tools that he put to such good use. Soon,\u00a0I got distracted with my own treatment,\u00a0and I wasn\u2019t online as much as I would have liked to have been.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

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\"Two<\/a><\/figure>
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Amaey with his brother Arjun.<\/div>\n
Credit: Purvi Shah<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

As I was going through my own treatment,\u00a0I didn\u2019t get the news.\u00a0Amaey\u2019s treatment didn\u2019t work. His parents and teachers opted not to tell me that he had passed away while I was in the midst of fighting my own battle.<\/p>\n

The day after I successfully finished my final radiation treatment, I remember talking to Leslie on the phone. I told her that I was done,\u00a0and I wanted to come talk to the kids again as soon as I was feeling a bit stronger. She said she had something to tell me. She let me know that\u00a0Amaey\u00a0had passed away.\u00a0 I was devastated.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Leslie also told me that\u00a0Amaey\u2019s funeral service was coming up soon.\u00a0Amaey\u2019s parents then contacted me, asking me if I might be feeling well enough to come speak at the service. I had to go. There was no way I could not be there!\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

There were many people gathered together at the service and several speakers. At one point,\u00a0Amaey\u2019s grandfather got up and in a quiet, sorrowful way,\u00a0explained how\u00a0Amaey\u2019s desire had always been to be a scientist.\u00a0Amaey\u00a0had wanted to study the stars, do research, and contribute. One of the great sadnesses of the grandfather\u2019s own life was that\u00a0Amaey\u00a0never had the opportunity to become a scientist, to explore the Universe, and to contribute to the science like he had so loved.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Then it was my turn to speak. I stood up,\u00a0and I said that I mean no disrespect\u2014I fully understood the sorrow that the family was feeling.\u00a0 But the very important fact of the matter was that\u00a0Amaey\u00a0did not miss this opportunity!\u00a0Amaey\u00a0HAD realized his dream. He DID become a scientist. From his isolation room,\u00a0Amaey\u00a0DID explore. He DID do research. He DID make contributions.\u00a0Amaey\u2019s ambitions had been realized, and his discoveries had been added to the scientific record.<\/p>\n

I said we can all take heart in knowing that under very difficult circumstances\u00a0Amaey\u00a0had achieved his dream.\u00a0 That seemed to become a source of comfort to\u00a0Amaey\u2019s family. And that\u2019s because he stepped up to the role and adventure of being a citizen scientist.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brian Day is the staff scientist at NASA\u2019s Solar System Exploration Research Virtual Institute, headquartered at NASA\u2019s Ames Research Center in California. His duties include serving as science lead for NASA\u2019s Solar System Treks Project<\/a> a family of open science online portals that make it easy to analyze the surfaces of the Moon and other planetary bodies in our Solar System. The project has a citizen science component called\u00a0MoonDiff<\/a>, which invites you to\u00a0help search for changes and newly formed features on the Moon.<\/a><\/p>\n

You can make your own contributions to science! Check out Brian\u2019s project,\u00a0MoonDiff.<\/a>\u00a0And if you know any other children like\u00a0Amaey, please share it with them.<\/p>\n

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