In my attempt to understand the smallest things in life, I've been reading about the big things: quantum physics and quantum mechanics. It's daunting, humbling, thrilling, confounding, exasperating, unintelligible, and lights my brain up like nothing ever has.
Last night it was a bunch of stuff about the atom and the electrons going about their orbits. The night before was the language of mathematics in physics' problems. (Keep in mind that I'm operating from the standpoint of Liberal Arts = The World.)
It's kicking my ass, but I still go back for more.
Here's my current favorite "go-to" thanga-ma-jang:
Not that I expect anyone tuning in to my blog will give any kind of a hoot about listening to a debate between the evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins and the "sexiest astro-physicist on earth" Neil DeGrass Tyson, but then again, maybe, just maybe, it'll strike a chord with one of ye.
Chord struck :) I love listening to Neil talk - I'd listen to him read a phone book, just for his voice. I have the same standpoint as you too, which made me smile. Thanks for the brain candy tonight. There is just so much to know, and not enough time to learn even a smidgen of it. But still we try...
ReplyDeleteWow, Mel!! So good to make this connection. We tune into Neil at work often when we spend the long hours painting. His sense of humor + his intelligence are both over-the-top.
ReplyDeleteWhen I imagine myself standing out on the edge of the universe looking back at the speck that is earth, I'll give you a wave ;-)
RD is a particular hero of mine. Too little time to listen to it all.
ReplyDeletei had an epiphany in a bar one night many years ago...back in the days when i still drank...that quantum physics and poetry were deeply connected. it's possible i was hitting on a physicist. or a poet. but still...
ReplyDeleteSusan, I think you were spot-on!
DeleteI adore Neil DeGrasse Tyson. A. DORE. Thank you.
ReplyDelete"Maybe, just maybe, it'll strike a chord with one of ye?" Oh yes! My entire instrument is a-humming, T! And I love Susan's comment re; poetry and physics being deeply connected. So, too, mathematics and music. Architecture and nature. Nothing exists independent of anything else; it's us who have created the divisions in our bid to try and understand the mechanics of the universe but we've done ourselves and the universe a great disservice separating all the bits out into different areas of study or expression when, really, everything is related to - and in conversation with - everything else; at once synonymous, interchangeable and differentiated. It terms of the idea of our universe being one vast and unified whole, I hear it. . . the Hum of the Parts.
ReplyDeleteI love thinking of you and Melinda (and Chris?) painting your glassware in the company of RD and NdGT! xoxoxo
Claire! Yes yes yes!
DeleteIt seems almost silly of me now to think that you wouldn't connect with this. Ah me.
Today I clicked on one of the facebook links you posted, which connected to other links on physics and consciousness, which led me all over the universe, as it were. Not a bad way to spend a Wednesday morning (listening to YouTube talks) even if I was doing some of the more dreaded painting tasks associated with my job.
xoT.
Men like this exist in another universe, really, and I'm glad they make it more accessible to us liberal arts geeks, because otherwise I'd be completely intimidated. There was a series in the 1970s...Connections by James Burke. One of the most intelligent and entertaining shows on television EVER. I've gone back and seen it several times, and it always fascinates. All that science stuff is really very magical.
ReplyDeleteTara, thanks for sending me the James Burke link — I'm about ready to queue it up!
DeletexT.