Science

I have been thinking a great deal about Science of late. I got an audio book from the Library recently called 'Why e=mc2 (and why we should care)' by Brian Cox and Jeff Forshaw. It's a wonderful book. Unfortunately though I only truly enjoyed the first two and a half of the six discs. I understood, for the first time, concepts like there being no such thing as absolute motion and what the speed of light being constant really means. These are by no means minor achievements for me.

But eventually we moved on to space time and though I could understand some of the concepts I couldn't pretend that I really understood it in the way that I did in the previous chapters. I think I may have to accept that I have reached my limit of understanding of this subject. 

This is not something that depresses me really. I have enjoyed the journey to get to the point where I understand a lot more of the universe than I did. The wonderful thing about science is that it opens your eyes to the world you live in. It may sound odd but at times when I feel low I look around and remind myself that everything I see and cannot see is made of atoms. The air, the trees, my fingernails, the bus and for reasons I can't truly fathom this remarkable fact seems to cheer me up. Just how wonderful the world is I guess. Science opens that knowledge up to me in a way I think few other things can.

So what if I don't understand space time. Science is hard but worth the journey. I love the quote from Niels Bohr which goes 'that a person who wasn't outraged on first hearing about quantum theory didn't understand what had been said to them.' Its nice to know that Science has the power to confuse bewilder and inspire even Nobel Prize winners.

Anyway enough science. I have final rehearsals for a panto tonight and need to apply some Newtonian laws to some custard pies into the faces of my fellow actors.