The central contention of physics has it that the building blocks of the universe will endure even if, or even when, the humans who tally them, and the planet we live on, all die. To see into the deathless universe is to try to see nothing so flamboyant as [William] Wordsworth’s favorite daffodils and walnut groves, but to peer into the coldest spaces, the black holes and the fractional electric charge of theoretical subatomic particles. These entities have no blood flow, of course, but also no DNA; they’re not susceptible to pandemics, however virulent, or the dividends and ravages of carbon. They don’t live, so they don’t die. To model the universe as precisely as possible is to try to see the one thing that even the strictest atheist agrees is everlasting — to try to achieve, in a lab, an intimation of immortality. | |
Back to the living world that’s under our feet. [Carlo] Rovelli is right to caution against the potential delusions of those who are greedy for eurekas. But, as a fellow physicist with a radical streak, he is also sympathetic to their ambitions, a drive to “learn something unexpected about the fundamental laws of nature.” To Rovelli, whose latest book describes quantum mechanics as an almost psychedelic experience, a truly radical discovery entails the observation of phenomena that fall outside three existing frameworks in physics: quantum theory, the Standard Model of particle physics, and general relativity. Only by blowing up one of those frameworks can one achieve the kind of immortality that scientists get, the glory of someone like Einstein or Heisenberg. | |
But to keep looking, as Rovelli has, as Fermilab has with this study on the muon’s magnetism, is also to apprehend hints. To follow hints. In that way, the physicist’s work and the poet’s are the same. And if Wordsworth is right, immortality can be found, of all places, in the hint — the staggering proposition by nature itself that, in spite of all the dying around us, something of all we love might be imperishable, might still flicker or shine or wobble when the rest of our world is gone. | |
— Virginia Heffernan | |
From her article: “Muonstruck“ | |
Appearing in: Wired Magazine; dtd: June 2021 | |
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On This Day In: | |
2021 | Keep Growing |
I Keep Looking | |
2020 | I Don’t Need No Stinkin’ Plans |
One Earth | |
2019 | Beautiful Rules |
2018 | Skepticism |
2017 | WWGD? |
2016 | Growing Greatness |
2015 | When It Is Darkest |
2014 | Knowledge And Doubt |
2013 | Three Thoughts |
2012 | Gentle Reader |
2011 | Leave The Light On For Me Anyway |
Posts Tagged ‘Daffodils’
Might Still Flicker Or Shine
Posted in Philosophy, Quotes, Science and Learning, tagged Albert Einstein, Carlo Rovelli, Daffodils, Fermilab, General Relativity, Muons, Muonstruck, Philosophy, physics, Quotes, Science, The Standard Model Of Particle Physics, Virginia Heffernan, Werner Heisenberg, William Wordsworth, Wired Magazine on April 28, 2022| Leave a Comment »
The Sun Came Out
Posted in Pictures, tagged Daffodils, Frogs, Front Garden, Home, Pictures, Pictures of Home, Roses, Snapdragons, Spring on March 17, 2020| Leave a Comment »
We have been having a few days of overcast weather lately. Yesterday, I was putting the bins out for the weekly pickup and the sun broke out. Next to me was a flash of color. | |
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I paused to see what had caught my attention… Snapdragons, some garden frogs and two pots of mini-roses (budding, but not yet blooming). Our daffodils are gone, but it looks like spring is sprung. The three frogs are “Hear no evil”, “Speak no evil” and “Falling asleep” – which I guess is supposed to be “See no evil”. | |
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On This Day In: | |
2019 | The Importance Of A Deadline |
Chaos Is Not Really A New Remedy | |
2018 | History Will Judge Harshly |
Father Time, Perhaps? | |
2017 | Odds Are |
2016 | Prayer, Too |
2015 | History, n. |
2014 | See It Sometime |
2013 | Precious Friend |
2012 | It Couldn’t Be Done |
Feeling Surrounded? | |
2011 | Surprise! |
And In The Back
Posted in Family and Friends, Pictures, tagged Cherry Blossoms, Daffodils, Flowers, Gardening, Pictures of Backyard Flowers, Yards on February 16, 2020| Leave a Comment »
My wife loves to putter in the front and back yards. She claims it’s because she’s English, but I think she just likes to add little touches of her personal beauty to the world – or at least to our small part of it… | |
In addition to the “normal” daffodils we have in our front yard (as shown in prior posts), we have a couple of plantings of “minis” and, most recently, a little purple “something” (she’s forgotten the name of) which are located in our back yard. We are expecting the neighbors’ cherry (and other fruit trees) blossoms any day now… | |
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On This Day In: | |
2019 | Sunlight Stream |
2018 | Wars Without Taxes |
2017 | Multiplication And Division |
2016 | I Went To The Woods… |
2015 | I’ve Got To Run |
2014 | Which Is It? |
2013 | Making You Stronger |
2012 | Sick Of Being Sick |
Greater Than Power | |
2011 | Clear, Specific And Measurable |
2010 | The Runner’s High |
Into The Dark… | |
Happy Valentine’s Day – 2020!!
Posted in Faith Family and Friends, Family and Friends, Philosophy, Quotes, tagged Daffodils, Dr. Leo F. Buscaglia, Family, Friend, Garden, Happy Valentine’s Day – 2020, Philosophy, Quotes, Rose, Sir Isaac Newton, World on February 14, 2020| 1 Comment »
A single rose can be my garden… a single friend, my world. | |
― Leo Buscaglia | |
I do not know what I may appear to the world, but to myself I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the sea-shore, and diverting myself in now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me. | |
― Sir Isaac Newton | |
[Happy Valentine’s Day, Hil!! You are the daffodil in my garden and the diamond sparkling on my sandy sea-shore. | |
All my love, Always, Your Kev XXX 00 X] |
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On This Day In: | |
2019 | Happy Valentine’s Day – 2019!! |
2018 | Happy Valentine’s Day – 2018!! |
2017 | Happy Valentine’s Day – 2017!! |
2016 | Happy Valentine’s Day – 2016!! |
2015 | To My Special Lady |
2014 | Awakening |
2013 | Drowsy In Comfort |
2012 | Happy Valentine’s Day |
2011 | Own Your Bible |
And Then There Was Yellow
Posted in Family History, Pictures, tagged Daffodils, Family History, Pictures, Yellow on February 10, 2020| Leave a Comment »
Each year (for the last 34 or so) I celebrate the “tentative” end of winter with the blossoming of the daffodils. (Hint: my wife’s favorite flower.) Here’s a picture of this year’s batch from the front of our house… | |
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On This Day In: | |
2019 | Sin Less Every Day |
2018 | Probably Only A Little Easier |
2017 | Stars Above |
2016 | Where Do You Stand? |
Health Update | |
2015 | Leaving On A Mid-Night Train |
2014 | Questioned Faith |
2013 | At Home In Fire |
2012 | A Tale Of Two Books |
More Meaning | |
2011 | Back At The Millstone |
To Learn, Teach | |
Yellow Signs Of Spring
Posted in Faith Family and Friends, Family and Friends, Pictures, Places, tagged Daffodils, Family, Flowers, Picture of Hil, Picture of Liverpool, Picture of Lynn, Spring on February 2, 2019| 5 Comments »
My wife’s favorite flower is the daffodil. Before I met her, I never thought much about flowers. I knew what a rose was (is) and I knew they came in different colors. I didn’t know the variations had different names or much of anything else. I used to buy my wife roses several times a year. Not for any particular reason. Just to make her smile. This stopped after a few years because she said she didn’t really like flowers – except daffodils. When we moved back to Liverpool in the early 1990’s, I found out why. They (Liverpool city) have fields and fields of daffodils and they all bloom at roughly the same time each year – in February / March. Here are some of the photos from my Hil’s trip home last year (2018). | |
Several years ago, Hil began planting bulbs in front of our house. They never seemed to take. They would pop up (bud), but never bloom. Then about 2016, the “miracle of Spring” began. (Unfortunately, we had to remove the tree shown in the first picture.) For whatever reason, we seem to get a few more each year… | |
On Monday of this week, they were just buds. On Thursday, the first five blossomed. The final photo is from this morning… | |
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On This Day In: | |
2018 | But Take Heart |
Poetic Marker | |
2017 | The Few, The Many, The Most |
2016 | To My Brother |
2015 | For Junior |
A Roman Rome | |
2014 | Hmmm |
2013 | What’s A Motto With You? |
2012 | Worthy Companions |
2011 | Bourne Again |
Which Ten Are You In? | |
Backyard Narcissus
Posted in General Comments, Pictures, tagged Daffodils, Narcissus, Pictures of Backyard Flowers, Pictures of Home on February 14, 2021| Leave a Comment »
And here is a photo of the Spring blossom of our backyard daffodils (Narcissus)… These are the miniature variety.
Backyard Daffodils
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