Originally featured in The Salty Fish Bowl - March 2010
Quantum physicists tell us that 99.99% of an atom's mass is in its nucleus, which consists of (positively charged) protons and (neutral) neutrons, with the rest being made up of (negatively charged) electrons arbitrarily whizzing around (or disappearing and reappearing elsewhere) within the surrounding energy field. The reason there is such a discrepancy in the distribution of mass is that the space taken up by the nucleus is inordinately smaller than the area taken up by those unpredictable electrons. It's been reckoned that if the nucleus of an atom were the size of a grain of sand, the atom itself would be the size of a football field. Essentially what they're telling us is that matter is almost entirely made up of empty space. Non-intuitive? If this is the case, shouldn't we be able to walk through walls? Well, no. The reason we don't just pass through other objects is that most of the particles we're talking about are electrically charged, causing atoms to repel each other, on a quantum scale. The atoms in your hand repel the atoms in someone else's, and thus a high five. So, if we assume atoms repel other atoms, then not only can we not pass through things, but we never actually touch them either. If you're sitting on a chair right now, you're not actually sitting on it, but rather hovering above it.
This may seem like useless information in terms of every day life, but it can be applied practically. For instance, if you drop your mug at the coffee shop and make a mess, don't worry, the case can be made that you were never holding it to begin with. Demand a refill. If you happen to commit murder, just hire a physicist as an expert witness, and they'll tell the court you never even touched the victim. And if you're the unfortunate witness of a criminal act, just tell the cops that the crime in question was merely your brain's interpretation of the photons of light that bounced away from your eyes before ever hitting them. You didn't see nuthin'. The possibilities are endless.
This does raise some more obvious questions though, like how does sandpaper work, and why are my tires bald? If nothing ever touches, how does anything have an effect on anything else? Why do I care if I stepped in dog doo? It becomes a metaphysical problem at this point. If matter is virtually nothing, does virtually nothing matter? Applying what we now know of the microscopic world to our own lives, don't atoms seem like really tiny people? They bounce around, superficially interacting with those in their midst, but never really affecting them in any profound way. Keep upping the ante. Aren't people just like planets and stars; ever orbiting, pulling each other this way and that, but rarely having any meaningful spiritual affect on each other? From the atomic to the astronomic, it seems everything is the same.
So if everything is the same, and if everything we know is 99.99% empty (this column perhaps especially), what does it all mean? Why, and how, are we here? Are we mere byproducts of billions of years of atomic evolution, simply descendants of the first atoms? Theologically speaking, does that make Adam the first atom? I’m not sure that Faith or faith in Science will ever answer that quandary. Perhaps on some level it’s best to not worry too much about the why’s and whatfor’s, on any scale. Some things really are best left to wonder.
Saturday, June 19, 2010
Tuesday, June 8, 2010
Spectral Speculation
Originally featured in The Salty Fish Bowl - May 2010
Recently, whilst frolicking amidst the mist of a public lawn moistener, I was struck by the innate beauty of the Rainbow. As I darted from one water spout to the next, I encountered a perfect circle of colour hovering before me, moving as I moved, like a spectral specter. It was breathtaking. I stood wondering where its end may be, and what might be there if I could find it; but circles have no end, and there is more to rainbows than mere beauty and the promise of gold. Rainbows are more unique, and full of more hidden treasures, than you might think.
I think it’s fair to say that most of us, at least once in our lives, have uttered something along the lines of, “Look at that rainbow,” and in most instances everybody did, but did you know that not a single one of you saw the same rainbow? It’s all about angles of perception. Light from the sun travels toward us through Space at the speed of light, until it hits something solid or is slowed down passing through an alternate medium (like a prism, or in this case moisture in our atmosphere) causing refraction. Light refraction is the result of the longer wavelengths (red) travelling faster through the moisture than the shorter wavelengths (indigo). This “bends” the light and separates the different wavelengths causing the spectrum you see in the sky. But why do we all see different rainbows? Picture yourself with a laser. If you aim it at a mirror the beam will bounce off at the same angle and hit whatever happens to be in that direction (hopefully not a somebody). Now, trying to keep your laser pointed just so, take a step to the left. Your beam should be hitting something else. Now imagine the same scenario outside, except the sun is the laser, moisture is the mirror, and you are the something. In summary, the sunlight that ends its journey in your eyes is different than that which hits your friends’ eyes, due to the angular discrepancies between yourselves and the sun. The next time you’re out with friends and see a rainbow, you can keep it to yourself, because they won’t be able to see it anyway. Be content in the knowledge that you are the only thing in existence that saw that particular rainbow.
The building blocks of the Universe. It has been theorized that the elements that make up everything we see, including you and me, originally came from stars. Stars are thought to be “Crucibles of Life,” where the necessary ingredients are brought to a boil and then blasted out into the Cosmos to become anything from planets, to people, to jalapeno poppers. How though, do scientists know what is inside a star? Quite simply, by reading rainbows. Light reacts differently when it interacts with different elements, and this can be seen in its wavelengths. With a (very) large telescope astronomers can pinpoint the light from individual stars, and with the application of a spectrograph (I’m not going to pretend I know how they work), they can determine exactly what elements reside inside. Spectrography can be used to determine types of stars, helping astronomers estimate things like age and life expectancy. It’s also used, perhaps most notably, to locate other Sun-like stars in the search for Earth-like planets, and may one day result in scientists finding somewhere else for us to live once we’ve F’ed up our own planet beyond repair.
Spectra of stars and galaxies are even used to observe the expansion of the Universe. The light from distant galaxies, has been found to be “red-shifted”, which means as the “fabric of Space” has stretched out, so have the wavelengths of the light travelling over that time. In fact it is widely believed that light from the Big Bang (approximately 13.7 billion light years ago) has red-shifted so much in getting to us that it is now actually radio waves. And we know all of this simply from looking at rainbows.
So the next time you see a rainbow, while you’re admiring it all to yourself, think on its Cosmic significance. Imagine how far the light had to travel, and all that it’s been through, only to be bent by some raindrops and splashed across the sky. Imagine what it’s trying to tell you about its beginnings, and perhaps even your own Fate.
Recently, whilst frolicking amidst the mist of a public lawn moistener, I was struck by the innate beauty of the Rainbow. As I darted from one water spout to the next, I encountered a perfect circle of colour hovering before me, moving as I moved, like a spectral specter. It was breathtaking. I stood wondering where its end may be, and what might be there if I could find it; but circles have no end, and there is more to rainbows than mere beauty and the promise of gold. Rainbows are more unique, and full of more hidden treasures, than you might think.
I think it’s fair to say that most of us, at least once in our lives, have uttered something along the lines of, “Look at that rainbow,” and in most instances everybody did, but did you know that not a single one of you saw the same rainbow? It’s all about angles of perception. Light from the sun travels toward us through Space at the speed of light, until it hits something solid or is slowed down passing through an alternate medium (like a prism, or in this case moisture in our atmosphere) causing refraction. Light refraction is the result of the longer wavelengths (red) travelling faster through the moisture than the shorter wavelengths (indigo). This “bends” the light and separates the different wavelengths causing the spectrum you see in the sky. But why do we all see different rainbows? Picture yourself with a laser. If you aim it at a mirror the beam will bounce off at the same angle and hit whatever happens to be in that direction (hopefully not a somebody). Now, trying to keep your laser pointed just so, take a step to the left. Your beam should be hitting something else. Now imagine the same scenario outside, except the sun is the laser, moisture is the mirror, and you are the something. In summary, the sunlight that ends its journey in your eyes is different than that which hits your friends’ eyes, due to the angular discrepancies between yourselves and the sun. The next time you’re out with friends and see a rainbow, you can keep it to yourself, because they won’t be able to see it anyway. Be content in the knowledge that you are the only thing in existence that saw that particular rainbow.
The building blocks of the Universe. It has been theorized that the elements that make up everything we see, including you and me, originally came from stars. Stars are thought to be “Crucibles of Life,” where the necessary ingredients are brought to a boil and then blasted out into the Cosmos to become anything from planets, to people, to jalapeno poppers. How though, do scientists know what is inside a star? Quite simply, by reading rainbows. Light reacts differently when it interacts with different elements, and this can be seen in its wavelengths. With a (very) large telescope astronomers can pinpoint the light from individual stars, and with the application of a spectrograph (I’m not going to pretend I know how they work), they can determine exactly what elements reside inside. Spectrography can be used to determine types of stars, helping astronomers estimate things like age and life expectancy. It’s also used, perhaps most notably, to locate other Sun-like stars in the search for Earth-like planets, and may one day result in scientists finding somewhere else for us to live once we’ve F’ed up our own planet beyond repair.
Spectra of stars and galaxies are even used to observe the expansion of the Universe. The light from distant galaxies, has been found to be “red-shifted”, which means as the “fabric of Space” has stretched out, so have the wavelengths of the light travelling over that time. In fact it is widely believed that light from the Big Bang (approximately 13.7 billion light years ago) has red-shifted so much in getting to us that it is now actually radio waves. And we know all of this simply from looking at rainbows.
So the next time you see a rainbow, while you’re admiring it all to yourself, think on its Cosmic significance. Imagine how far the light had to travel, and all that it’s been through, only to be bent by some raindrops and splashed across the sky. Imagine what it’s trying to tell you about its beginnings, and perhaps even your own Fate.
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