A cosmologist, cultural historian, and neurosurgeon discuss the power of awe and the cosmos

The images to emerge from the James Webb Space Telescope have captured details of the cosmos never seen before, leaving the scientific community and public alike in a state of awe. In a Tweet, former President Barack Obama described them as “mind-blowing.” Even Stanford cosmologist Zeeshan Ahmed, for whom such images are commonplace, admitted: “You can’t contain it in your head. I think this is true for everybody—I mean, scientists are human still.”