Friday, July 6, 2012

Nuclear physics and life

Today's my birthday so perhaps you will indulge me for a bit as I muse about subjects that don't have much to do with art.  I was intrigued to read in the paper yesterday that scientists have finally found evidence of the Higgs boson particle, which is widely described as the building block of the universe.

As a kid I was a math and science geek, and was fortunate enough to take advantage of the post-Sputnik enthusiasm for same.  When I was still in high school I got to attend a summer program to take a college course in nuclear physics (loved it!) and it occurs to me that had the road not turned, I could have been one of the scientists working on the search to understand where everything comes from.

But the road did turn, I abandoned nuclear physics after that one course, and soon abandoned math and science entirely, at least for decades.  I've come across my bluebooks from that summer and cannot understand a single word or equation I wrote.  Over the years I have occasionally felt guilty that I don't know much about physics, and tried to read news coverage of the continuing quest to discover the smaller and more exotic particles, but I still don't understand it.  Yet I keep reading -- or more accurately, keep skimming.

Yesterday I came across a wonderful passage in the New York Times coverage:  "The finding affirms a grand view of the universe described by simple and elegant and symmetrical laws -- but one in which everything interesting, like ourselves, results from flaws or breaks in that symmetry."

Now think on that for a bit.  How many of the interesting parts of our lives come from the turn in the road, the magic moments when the symmetry broke -- the stranger across a crowded room, the great teacher who inspired us to go in a different direction.  Or equally, the black magic moments -- the diagnosis, the tornado.

And bringing it back to art after all, isn't art often about the breaks in symmetry?  For instance, the traditional quilt, so symmetrical, so perfect, so boring.  And then one day somebody thought she might change a little bit in the corner, put in a pink patch where a red one "belonged," and it started being art.

Go make some today.



16 comments:

  1. Many, happy returns of the day, dear Kathy. Remembering our day together in Iceland, I think of how much I'd like to visit you one day and do some designing and sewing in your company. Have a wonderful day with your fine art quilts.
    Love, Ólöf

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  2. HAve a very good day! Have you seen Kate Findlay's work inspired by images of the Hadron Collider?
    http://art.findlays.net/bin/view/Main/HadronCollider

    Wish we could send you some of our rain to cool off the hot days you are having there.
    Sandy in the UK

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  3. Happy Birthday Kathy and thanks for a wonderful juxtaposition of ideas....

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  4. Happy birthday from Germany!

    Your fan
    Regine Daldrp

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  5. Happy Birthday Kathy, the world's a better place because you became and artist instead of a physicist. IMHO. Enjoy your special day!

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  6. Have a GREAT b-day!!!!

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  7. Happy Birthday Kathy, have a wonderful day and year!

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  8. Thank you for the quote from the NY times. Wish you a wonderful birthday and a great year!

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  9. Many happy returns!
    On the "knowing more about physics" front, I recommend "Genius" by James Gleick - it's a biography of Richard Feynman, but along the way he goes into a history of physical discovery and aspects of physics theory - all very understandable and readable. It was published quite a few years ago, and copies are available for just pennies.....

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  10. Happy Birthday, Kathy! Here's to another year of great art and always giving us something to think about.

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  11. Happy birthday Kathy! Birthdays always make me feel the miracles of our short time on earth. I too was flummoxed by the technical discussions about the Higgs Bosun but I felt such great joy anyway. The fact that there is pure research being done in Physics and Astronomy makes my heart happy. There's a wonderful cartoon explanation you might enjoy here:
    http://vimeo.com/41038445

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  12. Elegant explanation! Thanks. And of course, Happy Birthday.

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  13. Hope you had a wonderful birthday!

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  14. What a beautiful post!

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