The Weekly Whitman

No. 6: May 10, 2020

 

Always the hope of science has been to find simplicity,

            underlying the manifold complexities of the visible world.

We have traced the enormous variety of life forms on this planet back through     

            evolutionary genetics to much simpler forms.

The chemical energies on which most of those forms function

            we have traced back to sunlight,

            and yet further back to the gravitational energy of hydrogen

            dispersed in space.

We have traced the materials of this sense world back

            to the ninety-two chemical elements of the periodic table,

And from there further back through stellar evolution

            to the simplest of elements,

            hydrogen.

The further back we trace, the simpler the universe looks,

And always there lurks the hope

That if we trace far enough we’ll see, at last,

The most beautiful simplicity of all.

 

                                                                                                           

                                                                                                             John Dobson

                                                            from Astronomy for Children Under Ninety

                                                                                                                            1985