Charting What's Already Here

I was putting together a presentation today and came upon this xkcd comic.

I tried to actually post the artwork on here, but was unable and didn't want to infringe any copyrights doing technological calisthenics.  So, go take a look.  It is a really beautiful thing.

If you scroll over the comic with your mouse, there is an extensive comment from the author/artist on charting what's already here.  I thought this was profound for several reasons; first, we can become trapped in our own little bubbles of despair, where we look out and think excitement and novelty have left us.  In addition, we can be overwhelmed by a vast ocean of experience and observation and dismiss it as being to big and broad to understand, when in reality there is depth and specificity to be found in that ocean.

Science is one of those areas that revels in looking at the things underlying the surface.  While it seems that everything has been done and published, this is untrue.  The universe, our own planet, is vast in both size and scope.  The diversity of phenomena is nigh endless.  Beauty resides in all things, from the ecosystem level on down to within individual cells.  So exciting!