I’m currently reading Richard Dawkins’ “Unweaving the Rainbow“, and was quite beguiled by his excellent explanation of the information that can be extracted from light. There is much information packed into the light we see from distant stars, and a lot of beauty associated with light waves.
His central thesis in the book is that Keats (and others) are wrong when they accuse Newton, and scientists in general, of destroying the poetry and beauty of natural phenomena such as Rainbows, by explaining them. I agree entirely with Dawkins, but I was a little embarrassed, despite having an A-level in Physics, to not have sat down and worked out quite why a rainbow is the shape it is (the colour is the easy bit). Wikipedia has a concise explanation available if you’re interested.
Some might argue that natural phenomena are more beautiful or awe-inspiring when it remains unexplained. I couldn’t disagree more, and think that rainbows are all the more beautiful when you understand how they occur and what they are. Likewise everything about us from cosmology, mathematics, biology and new technologies. I always found Biology a particularly dry subject, but the last few months with Richard Dawkins’ various books and I’m pleased to say I’ve discovered a new enthusiasm for this particular science that I could sorely have used all those years ago at secondary school.
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October 12th, 2005 at 11:40 pm
[...] I’ve written before about rainbows, and how alluring they are, all the more so when you understand how they form. [...]