(Through the Looking Glass of) Nature’s Prism

Art Pallone

Quantify. 
Classify.
Expand our vision—while tearing it apart.
Color our world from the data.
We see the impossible 
and graph to understand it.
Its waves wash over us while 
its particles push us,
serving both to communicate and to transport
as we reach for the unknown 
in the not-as-empty-as-we-thought darkness.
We search the cosmos for signs, 
listening with synesthesia.
We call across the vastness.
Hopeful we’re not alone. 
Fearful we’re not.
Each prospect brings reward and punishment.
“Turn around!” the Universe cries. 
In admonishment of our arrogance?
In warning to our ill-preparedness?
We turn.
Storm clouds and sunshine 
greet us with a spectral dance 
in a watery sky,
Newton’s song for his Roy G. Biv
conducted by a wave from Huygens.
Complex steps paint the canvas sky 
in a simple, 
color-filled
Rainbow.

The Science

Colour is intimately tied to sight, a powerful sense that depends on light. Application of the scientific method led to two irreconcilable models in the European understanding of light, each supported by observations. Christiaan Huygens believed light is made of waves (1690) and Isaac Newton believed light is made of particles (1704). Others extended our vision of light beyond Newton’s ROYGBIV to the colours we cannot see—radio, infrared, ultraviolet, x-rays, and gamma rays. This completed the electromagnetic rainbow described by James Clerk Maxwell’s theory (1895).

Quantum mechanics grew from our desire to understand the rainbow’s interaction with matter. It requires us to accept a duality in nature, breaking from the European monistic view. Light can be a wave or light can be a particle. Supported by Max Planck’s (1900), Albert Einstein’s (1905), Arthur Compton’s (1923) and many others’ research, quantum mechanics laid the foundations for today’s technologies and our current understanding of the universe.  Our telescopes collect data that span the entire electromagnetic rainbow. We paint pictures of that data in colour pallets to reveal what our eyes cannot see and our ears cannot hear. We add our own voice to the rainbow’s message in the form of television and radio programs, announcing our presence to those who are painting their own pictures. Sunlight’s photons reflect off our solar sails to propel the sails by momentum transfer. In our quest to understand, nature reminds us to pause and enjoy its beauty through the arcing colours of the rainbow.

The Poet

Art Pallone brings science closer to his students, the public, and researchers who may have limited resources. He has taught college physics for more than twenty years. Art’s research career ranges from nuclear astrophysics to the creative use of multi-spectral and multi-modal imaging. His students have assisted him in building instruments and published articles as coauthors with him. His passion for science is equaled only by his passion for teaching and outreach. Art currently teaches physics at Penn State Harrisburg. Art credits his lifelong love and wife, Jacque, as his creative inspiration in all things.

Next poem: Ultramarine by Jean Taylor