ABSTRACT
Much of the phemomena that are of interest to the scientifc community are those that exist at scales beyond our temporal, perceptual, or experiential limits. Whether the phenomenon is cosmological, geological, biological, or chemical, our window on the world is really very small. For example, it i s estimate d tha t th e univers e ha s take n 1 5 billio n year s t o evolv e to it s curren t stat e fro m th e primordia l bi g bang . I t ha s take n Earth’ s surface abou t 200 million years to form the current continents from th e supercontinent Pangaea. Our early huminid ancestors began their distinct evolutionary pat h abou t 7. 5 millio n year s ago . Obviously, change s o n these temporal scales are not directly accessible to us within a lifetim e of 70-some years, yet understanding changes of these magnitudes is the motivation for many important lines of scientifc research .
