To What End, Rainbows?

I was driving away from the house with my boys to run some errands.  I was silently ruminating about how we had managed to get loaded up in the car right when the rain got significantly heavier when I looked up in the sky and saw a clearly defined rainbow.

I find rainbows exciting, and that particular rainbow stripped my rain induced annoyance away.  My eldest finds rainbows exciting too, as was evidenced by his elation when I pointed it out to him in the sky after we stopped at a light.  I asked him what colors he saw.  He said, "Blue, orange, yellow and red."  I'm not sure if I got his order right or not, but he enumerated all but purple (the purple portion was rather dim besides).  He was also quick to point out that blue was his favorite.

Rainbows are one of those great science treats out there.  Kids love them.  Adults can love them, too, if they remember to.  Simple droplets of water in the air offer a natural glimpse of the prismatic nature of white light, begging for someone to look and wonder, "How?"

It turns out some notable people started wondering how quite a while ago.  A quick trip to Wikipedia confessed a litany of names, beginning with Aristotle, and including an Arab physicist (Ibn al-Haytham), a Persian philosopher (Ibn Sīnā), a Chinese scholar (Shen Quo), a Persian astronomer (Qutb al-Din al-Shirazi), the French natural philosopher René Descartes, and Sir Isaac Newton (let's just call him a scientist... he had he wore too many hats to list them all) all did their part in furthering scientific explanations of rainbows.  Many other didn't make my far from exhaustive list.  So, if a rainbow has ever inspired your wonder and curiosity, you're in some good company.

One of the things I find most fascinating about rainbows is their natural gratuity.  There are many beautiful phenomena in nature that inspire us to ask questions.  Yet most of them have a rather clear purpose.  From the amazing star forming regions in Orion's belt where the most fundamental necessity for our kind of life, the creation of a star, is being repeated time and again, to the amazing color spread of a male peacock's feathers, carefully crafted through evolutionary time to woo potential mates, beauty comes with purpose, there is function to form.  There is no obvious useful purpose served by rainbows.  Rainbows are a special treat endowed by a Universe that rewards those who know how to forget getting soaked long enough to appreciate a little bit of color in life.

Image Credit: Wikipedia

Do Dinosaurs Eat People?

While getting my boys into their room to put them to bed the other night, my eldest asked me, “Do dinosaurs eat people, Daddy?”  I saw a teachable moment I could seize on and responded, “Dinosaurs and people never lived together.”  He, of course, wanted to know why not.  I explained to him that all the dinosaurs were gone long before any people were around.  I told him that millions of years ago, a large comet struck the Earth and made it dark everywhere, which made the plants die, so that the dinosaurs didn’t have anything to eat.

I also told him that little creatures survived underground, and that they eventually became us.  I realized my over-simplification and decided to risk pushing the explanation beyond his years (I have always believed it better to err on the side of providing too much information to children rather than too little).  I rephrased, explaining that the small creatures that survived evolved – that they changed a little bit at a time, over and over again – until some of them turned into people.  He was satisfied enough with my description to eventually drift off to sleep without one more, "Why...?"

I thought back to the trip we took to the California Academy of Sciences a few months earlier,  and remembered the large Tyrannosaurus Skeleton Reproduction (pictured above) looming by the entrance.  My eldest had been amazed by it when we went inside - and so was I.  It is still amazing to me that such creatures existed.  Everything represented by that modeled set of bones - the depth of time that has passed in our planet's history, the sheer grandness of such a large predator, the fragility of life, and the ability of science to help us learn it all - will never cease to amaze.

The ironic thing was that the next night I saw a bit of Jurassic Park on television.   The part I saw included the scene where one of the park employees was eaten off of the portable toilet by the Tyrannosaurus Rex he was hiding from.  So maybe I should have told my inquisitive son that people and dinosaurs had never lived together – yet!  I’m kidding.  Really.

Image Credit: Me :-)

Farewell Discovery, and We Thank You

 

“And, Houston, Discovery, for the final time, wheels stop,” Shuttle Commander Steven Lindsey announced over the radio as the Space Shuttle Discovery coasted to a stop after a perfect  touch down on the tarmac at the Kennedy Space Center, signaling the beginning of the end of an era.

Discovery deployed the Hubble Space Telescope, which went on to become one of the most successful scientific instruments of all time, not only because of the wealth of data derived from it, but also because of its ability to capture images that truly captured the public’s imagination.

Discovery picked up the pieces after the loss of the Challenger, being the first return flight after the hiatus.  It was also the first shuttle to return to space after the loss of the Columbia.  It was the first shuttle to fly with a female pilot (Eileen Collins), was the last shuttle to dock with MIR, and returned a national hero from the glory days of the space program, John Glenn, to outer space.

Discovery played a vital role in the construction and supply of the International Space Station, and it launched several satellites and scientific instruments.

In total, Discovery flew 39 missions, more than any other in the fleet.  It also logged the most time in space, a full 365 days, and the longest distance traveled while in orbit, 149 million miles – a trip to the sun and halfway back.

After decommissioning, Discovery will be taken to the Smithsonian Institute where it will be put on display as a lasting reminder to us all of what is possible.  Even its name – Discovery – leaves us with a lasting legacy.

Image Credit: NASA via Wikipedia