Grandpa Davey Speaks

Queer Creatures

What queer creatures we are! Purely on hearsay do we accept, as factual, concepts that are utterly incomprehensible to the senses we experience this universe through. We accept that strangers have done the research and if something sounds good then it becomes part of our reality.

Several years ago, while on sabbatical, I realized that DNA was one of these concepts. Pure genius! We now have a tiny, incredibly complex molecule in every cell of every living creature. Of course this discovery had to be the result of countless scientists, all adding to the diligent research of countless others before them. This molecule now codes for every aspect of every organ in every organism. We can now send a man to the death chamber because he supposedly touched the clothing of a victim. Juries can now convict purely on hearsay with this tool that they cannot even comprehend.

Sir Issac Newton described the laws of gravity. Proportional to the square of the distance must have sounded very clean, because we still have it to this day. E=mc² also has that crisp flavor. Thus, classical physics is something we choose to live with.

Studying the small world, we needed something new. Quantum physics filled the bill. For the time being we have two physics. We have classical for the macro and quantum for the micro world.

Speaking of small, is there no limit? Based on their forebear’s work, today’s researchers bring us endlessly smaller micro electronic components. Recently I attended a short lecture on porous silicon. Through quantum tunneling of a silicon crystal, surface area is vastly increased, opening new possibilities for the next generation of semi-conductors. The interesting part of this is that the porosity is measured in planck lengths. Look up planck lengths. I'll bet, as a unit of length, it is beyond your comprehension. It’s like less than nothing.

On the large side, there is the universe. Estimated at 80 billion light years across with an age of 14 billion years. We are told that; from the original singularity, space-time is expanding as a balloon expands. Presumably we are somewhere on the surface of this space-time balloon.

Astronomers, using large telescopes peer back farther and farther towards the Big Bang. Where on earth is that? For 14 billion years the light from the Big Bang, traveling at…at the speed of light would have past us long ago. All we could possibly see would be taillights. Wait! With a 40 billion light year radius, how did the universe get here in 14 billion years? I’ve been waiting for years to run into a cosmologist to get an explanation.

All of our vast knowledge of the universe was gained from the cumulative work of nameless others over time.

Time? What an interesting concept. That’s very presumptuous of a species incapable of more than one thought at a TIME. A species living in the now with no way to prove the past ever existed. I know. You think it did.

What queer creatures!

©08/01/08