Between the quantum and the cosmos

I found this set of readings really intriguing. Each one of them addressed an element of size and it's function within the universe. One discussed the vastness of the cosmos and the infinitesimal importance of a single sub-nuclear molecule. Another talked about the immense potential of energy. Finally, a third talked about how size matters, and the effect size can have on the way a creature functions.


I think it was most interesting to me because size is something that we often have a hard time fathoming. We cannot look at size objectively, and often if something is on either of the extreme ends of the spectrum, it cannot be truly understood by a human being. We can only look at size through the eyes of a human, therefore, we are limited in our view and understanding of what size is. We will inevitably compare the size of something to our own human size, and thus are limited to a fairly small range of understanding. We know an apple is generally about the size of the palm of our hand. It can be seen that a bear is probably 2-3 times the size of the average man. We easily compare a tube of chap stick to approximately the size of a pinky or ring finger. But we tend to have a hard time understanding, wholly, what we cannot see. We can't see an atom, nor can we see the entire universe. These things we can only understand to a certain extent. We can imagine them in comparison to the sizes of humanity, but we cannot truly grasp their expanses. We can't really compare an atom to the size of anything we can see. Maybe we could imagine it like a grain of sand, but even then a grain of sand could be infinitely larger than an atom itself. We can think of the universe in terms of the ocean, vast and far-reaching, and yet even the largest ocean is just a fraction of the size of the universe. The scale of it all is nearly impossible for us to truly understand because we have nothing to truly compare it to to gain human understanding of such things.

That's also what's so amazing about size. It both intrigues and terrifies us, something that Jeans is quick to point out, "We find the universe terrifying because of its vast meaningless distances, terrifying because of its inconceivably long vistas of time which dwarf human history to the twinkling of an eye, terrifying because of our extreme loneliness, and because of the material insignificance of our home in space--a millionth part of a grain of sand out of all the sea-sand in the world" (3). We want to know and understand the great vastness of everything that is out there, but it also terrifies us that we can't really know what else is out there, that we can't even begin to wrap our minds around how far-reaching it all can really be.