How Things Work: A Brief History of Reality
BOOK II: The Power of Three (#52. "A Brief History of the Microscope" – Part 2)
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Tuesday, October 11 , 2022
“Equipped with our five senses - along with telescopes and microscopes and mass spectrometers and seismographs and magnetometers and particle accelerators and detectors sensitive to the entire electromagnetic spectrum - we explore the universe around us and call the adventure science.”
— Edwin Powell Hubble
CONSIDERATION #52 – “A Brief History of the Microscope” Part Two
PREFACE
Welcome Everybody!
In understanding how a microscope works we also come to understand how other things work. First, we learn how light works. Then, we gain a basic understanding of how the eye and brain perceives this light. Finally, we discover how new technology, such as electron microscopes, work at the quantum level. In the end, we move from an understanding of empirical science to an understanding of rational science.
This understanding is absolutely necessary in tackling the atomic abstractions related to Relativity, Quantum Mechanics, and String Theory.
CONSIDERATION #52 – A Brief History of the Microscope – Part Two
“Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.”
– Arthur C. Clarke
Anything that acts as a light source such as the sun, a lightbulb, or a candle, is continuously emitting photons which we see and recognize as light. When these photons hit other objects, they will either pass through, bounce off, or be absorbed by those objects depending on the object they strike. Photons enter our eyes striking a “photon detection screen” made of cells known as the Retina. Light, or photons, enter the pupil of the eye and are absorbed by the Retina which then “describes” the “color” of the photon and “where” it struck the Retina to the brain. The brain processes and uses the data collected from the eyes to construct the actual world that we “see,” or perceive.
Sight is the process of millions of tiny projectiles called photons bouncing off objects in the environment into our eyes which are then absorbed into a detection screen (Retina) which is then processed by our brain to produce the “tangible” world that we interpret as “real” because we can “see” it with our own eyes. Microscopes essentially magnify that process so that we can make very small things bigger, allowing us to see them with our own eyes. Making them tangible, or real.
“The degree of magnification possible by a microscope is greatly affected by the size of the projectiles it uses to bounce off the objects.”
Optic, or Light Microscopes, utilize photons as projectiles that are bounced off an object and then projected through a series of lenses in order to magnify that object. The degree of magnification possible by a microscope is greatly affected by the size of the projectiles it uses to bounce off the objects. The smaller the projectile, the greater the resolution of the microscope. Photons are small enough to effectively magnify cells, bacteria, and the details of very small things such as insects. However, photons are too large to magnify things smaller than themselves such as viruses, molecules, atoms, or subatomic particles.
Electron Microscopes use electrons instead of photons as projectiles. Electrons projected at high energy levels produce much shorter wavelengths than photons; allowing them to record smaller objects such as viruses. In the 1980’s, new Scanning Probe Microscopes were developed that utilized technology designed to “shrink light” in order to decrease the wavelength even further, allowing for the imaging of objects at the molecular and atomic level.
“These microscopes, sometimes called chemoscopes, can record the atomic movement within molecules that power chemical reactions.”
This imaging scanning technology essentially replaces our eyes in collecting the projectile data that is sent to a computer that replaces our brain and processes the information into a magnified image that we can “see” with our own eyes. These microscopes, sometimes called chemoscopes, can record the atomic movement within molecules that power chemical reactions. This new technology is consequential for developing quantum computers, directly reading an organism’s DNA, and identifying different strains within a specific virus species.
Understanding the basics of how subatomic particles and microscopes work will enable us to better understand how something as simple as Brownian Motion could eventually lead to the discovery of molecules and atoms.
POSTSCRIPT
The microscope is a tool that brings the reality of the very small into the realm of human perception. Starting with the world of microbes, and eventually moving to the world of quantum possibility. Both worlds become critical to the advancement of modern science. Ironically, the microscope’s counterpart, the telescope, would become the tool for bringing the reality of Relativity into the realm of human perception. The microscope and the telescope reflect the yin and yang of the new modern science; one manifesting the reality of the large and the other manifesting the reality of the small.
Next week we begin by investigating the reality of the small with Einstein’s consideration of Brownian Motion. The first step in empirically identifying atoms and molecules.
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Excerpt from Untangling the Knots of Reality – Podcast #18: “Untangling Rene Descartes." UPGRADE TODAY!
This Week on “The Thread”:
•Untangling the Knots of Reality Podcast: “Untangling Rene Descartes” (“Descartes rejects the entire tradition of empirical metaphysics underlying his understanding of How Things Work; by questioning the very certainty of the physical world itself. Descartes shifted the awareness of human consciousness from an empirical emphasis to a rational emphasis, altering the focus from the empirical senses to the rational mind…” )
•Reality by a Thread (Discussion Thread): Preview of Book V – “Empirical & Rational Abstractions” (“Science and Religion represent two connecting dots on a line to Reality; eliminate either dot, and you eliminate the line connecting you to a “truth…” Therefore, Science and Religion represent one possible “connection” to the “truth” about Reality; however, both dots are necessary to make this connection. One dot alone, is just a point…”)
•FREE PDF Download of Book IV: “The Cosmic Symphony – Overtones of String Theory” plus other discounts and benefits.
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