THE SOUTHWORTH PLANETARIUM
70 Falmouth Street Portland, Maine 04103
(207) 780-4249 usm.maine.edu/planet
43.6667° N 70.2667° W
Founded January 1970
2022-2023: XI
Sunrise: 6:18 a.m.
Sunset: 6:55 p.m.
Civil twilight ends: 7:24 p.m.
Sun's host constellation: Leo the Lion
Moon phase: Waning gibbous (88% illuminated)
Moonrise: 8:38 p.m.
Moonset: 11:00 a.m. (9/14/2022)
Julian date: 2459836.16
“Words and magic were in the beginning one and the same thing,
and even today words retain much of their magical power."
-Sigmund Freud
THE DAILY ASTRONOMER Tuesday, September 13, 2022
Egg to Apple - A Guide to Big History II:
Two Balloons - A Defense of Big History
_____________________________________________
*EGG TO APPLE: Historical and Mythological*
During the pandemic lockdown, the Daily Astronomer posted a series of
astronomy lectures entitled '"The Remote Planetarium." Each installment
included a mythological section which highlighted a different character or
set
of characters. This Big History course shall adopt the same format.
Unlike the Remote Planetarium,however, these mythological stories will all
be related to a specific time sequence starting at the birth of the baby
who would mature to become Helen of Troy. The aim is to proceed, albeit
in a cursory fashion, through the Trojan War and then through the Odyssey
to the celebratory feast following Odysseus' long-awaited return to
Ithaca. We'll see how far we'll proceed. The mythological segments
will be placed at the end of each Big History "chapter."
________________________________________________
We begin today with two balloons. Blink once and you'll see them both
before you: floating above the podium to which they have been firmly
tethered. As much as we love to see balloons flying freely, the one thing
we don't want is to have two balloons pressed up against the dome, where
they would likely remain forever. As we've infiltrated your mind, you are
free to make them any shape and color you'd like. However, one of them must
contain hydrogen and the other helium. They will serve an essential role in
our defense of Big History.
Perhaps more than any other field, Big History has weathered an unremitting
volley of broadside assaults. The principal attack is based on the
broadness of its scope. To craft a discipline which incorporates a
multitude of elements as disparate as cosmology, cell biology and human
migration patterns is perceived as not only irrationally audacious, but
theoretically impossible. Ours is the age of over-specialization, in
which even an expert within a given field often lacks a comprehensive view
of it. The enlightenment's gradual knowledge acquisition that expanded
geometrically throughout the Victorian era has now exploded exponentially.
The adage that "astronomers find out less and less about more and more"
could be equally applied to almost every branch of scientific inquiry that
arose out of what was once termed "natural philosophy."
All very true. Moreover, we concede that in terms of knowledge, the cost
of an increase in breadth is a deficiency in depth: a complimentary
principle of which every planetarium astronomer is frustratingly aware.
Such are the limitations of the mortal mind. However, Big History's
aim is not to compile every iota of information into a single resource akin
to Asmiov's Encyclopedia Galactica.
Explaining its aim, or at least one of them, necessitates the presence of
these balloons.
Regard them for a moment. The gases pressing furiously against the
membranes are composed of the two simplest elements: Squares 1 and 2
along the extensive Periodic Table. Approximately 380,000 years after
the Big Bang event (13.8 billion years ago), the Universe had cooled
sufficiently so as to allow the first material to "condense" out of the
pervasive cosmic radiance. This material consisted almost entirely of
hydrogen and helium. Little else besides.
Now, turn away from the balloons and regard your surroundings for just a
moment. What do you observe? Chairs, clothes, people, walls,
electronics, keyboards, feet (well, we'll ignore those today), rugs, cups,
books, windows, trees, Sun, clouds, sky, automobiles, streets, buildings,
houses, and so forth and so on. A variegated assortment of objects
assuming myriad forms and performing all manner of functions. The one
object you can't see, because it rests above your eyes, is your brain: the
3 lb conglomeration of neurons capable of seeing, remembering, naming and
understanding all those objects with a given environment.
Please turn to the balloons again. Were I two slice them both with a
dagger, these light gases would escape with a bang and dissipate rapidly in
all directions. Invisible. Insubstantial. And, yet, when the cosmos was
in its infancy, hydrogen and helium comprised the vast majority of the
material Universe (And, in fact, still does.)
How did the cosmos progress from this initial simplicity to the deep
complexity that defines both the present day world and the modern human
that is such an integral part of it? What, in effect, is the origin of
today? What transpired before you sat here engaged in the intricate
process of converting shapes on a page into coherent thoughts and ideas?
How did the stuff of floating balloons transmute into the human brain?
That answer is the real province of Big History.
To cite the Big Bang alone is insufficient for that merely explains the
inception of physical existence. Beyond this the first moments in which
the fundamental physical forces fractured and became distinct. Then, the
inflation, expansion, thermal cooling, the appearance of the lightest
elements preceding the development of the first galaxies and stars. The
earliest stars that through sequences of thermonuclear fusion reactions
transformed these light elements into more massive and complex nuclei. Only
when these massive stars exploded as supernovae did the true alchemy
begin: the creation of the trans-iron elements such as silver, gold,
mercury and uranium. Eventually the disgorged metal-rich contents
of a distant supernovae collided broadside with a cold dark nebulae.
This encounter precipitated a slow but inexorable collapse which, over ten
million years, gave form to a rich galactic cluster. Around one of its
members, now known as the Sun, a disc coalesced into planets.
Soon after the third world's thin crust weathered the unrelenting assaults
of the asteroidal bombardments did it become conducive to the development
of rudimentary life. Only after a protracted period did these simple
prokaryotic cells develop into the nucleated eukaryotes. Eventually the
multi-cellulars arose which led naturally to even greater stages of
complexity leading up to the Cambrian explosion and subsequent series of
extinctions and . All the while, the turbulent geological upheavals of our
unquiet Earth folded landforms up into sky-puncturing summits only to have
them gradually eroded by the unremitting winds and all too frequent rains.
Islands were detached, geological barriers erected, the climate heated
and cooled and heated again. The myriad life forms reacted to these
changes, altering their forms and even evolving into new species.
The near annihilation of the Clade Dinosauria precipitated the mammalian
ascendency leading ultimately to the order of primates. Within this order
the species Homo Sapiens evolved that, for the greater part of its quarter
million year history, consisted of hunters and foragers migrating across
the ever-altering landscapes. During the final five percent of this
history this species became proficient at plant cultivation leading to the
rise in agriculture, the first permanent settlements along with rudimentary
writing. The increased food availability afforded some individuals the
opportunity for more cerebral, and in some cases abstract, pursuits. Then
came the advent of city-states, more complex systems of writing and
mathematics. Art, the practice of which even predates the first
established communities, found expression in a growing array of media: from
sculpture to tapestries, mosaics to drama. Every aspect of civilization
evolved into greater forms.
In time did these audacious and advanced primates construct
continent-spanning empires often through the tireless prosecution of
devastating wars. These empires generated wealth that allowed for the
exploration of distant realms, most of which had by that time had already
been populated by other restless humans. Increased travel, trade,
explosions in commerce yet again transfigured the world.
Running concurrent with all these alterations was the rise of natural
philosophy: inquiries into nature's intricate and often hidden
mechanisms. These investigations would force humans to confront the
fallacy of their own conceits and replace the Earth-centered cosmos with an
ever-expanding Universe in which not only our planet, but its parent star
and even the vast galaxy containing it would all seem negligible in
relation to the broader cosmos.
In this way did the stuff of these two balloons, through the contrivance of
physical processes, transform into today's megacities, satellites, and
minds capable of producing that most intangible of all miracles: unceasing
thought.
Albert Einstein once said, "There are only two ways to live your life. One
is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a
miracle."
Big History, for all its "mad ambitions" and "over broad scopes," serves
as the best conduit into a Universe of miracles that lamentably is all too
often ignored.
Next time, we start in earnest by the introduction of the thresholds.
________________________________________________________________
*EGG TO APPLE: Two Eggs*
The mythological series of sagas entitled "Egg to Apple" must begin with
the sight of Spartan King Tyndareus lying contentedly next to his
beautiful Queen Leda. For the benefit of delicately constituted readers,
we'll first look upon them after the completion of their coital act,
performed passionately and exuberantly next to a lake. Such was the
intensity of their exertions that Leda soon fell asleep while Tyndareus,
whose elation precluded sleep, stood up and decided to wander for a bit
through the forests that fringed the lakeside. The moment he
disappeared into the forest grove, a swan that had been floating gracefully
along the lake surface wandered onto the shore and drew up next to the
dozing Leda. As soon as the swan drew its wings along her naked form,
she awakened. At the first sight of the giant creature, she was curiously
unafraid. Though obviously powerful, the wing feathers were softer than
anything she had ever felt, almost as cool and gentle as an autumn breeze.
She was, however, startled when the swan climbed on top of her and
enveloped her in a powerful embrace. Leda soon relaxed, however,
despite the swan's highly unusual and impertinently intimate behaviour.
She caressed its neck and, to her own surprise, found herself gently
kissing its face and drawing it down toward her. Prodigiously strong, yet
tender; forceful, but not threatening. Though Leda's love for her dear
Tyndareus was undiminished and her devotion to him unwavering, she yielded
fully to the swan and coupled with it*, while not quite sure why.
*[image: Correggio.jpg]*
*Leda and the Swan*
Artist: Coraggio Oil on canvas
1531-32
By the time Tyndareus returned, the Swan had already returned to the lake
and, in a flash, had vanished. The King was curious to find his wife
still fast asleep but covered with swan feathers. She awakened with a start
when she felt her husband brushing a few of the feathers away.
"Tyndareus," she murmured frightfully while looking up at him and tracing
her finger tip along his cheek. "It's all right," he replied quietly.
Though he harbored suspicions about what had transpired in his absence,
Tyndareus was not roused to a jealous wrath, but was instead subdued and
circumspect in his words. "Are you well?" Leda smiled. "I shall be
provided you remain here."
Neither of them spoke again of that incident as they both knew that that
had obviously been no ordinary swan. In fact, it was Zeus, himself, who
had assumed the form of a swan when, after having seen the naked Leda by
the lake, had become deeply aroused. Once his lust was satisfied, Zeus
floated away across the lake and then rapidly ascended to Olympus, hopeful
that his disguise had deceived his long-suffering wife, Hera.
Soon thereafter, Leda produced two eggs, each of which contained a pair of
fraternal twins, a boy and girl in each. One egg harbored the twins
sired by Tyndareus, the other a pair sired by Zeus. A perfect example
of what is known as hyperpaternal superfecundation. Despite its
Disneyesque sound, hyperpaternal superfecundation is a real condition
referring to a single pregnancy that produces twins, each of which has a
different father. In this case, a different father produced a pair of
twins.
The eggs expanded to accommodate the growing babies until one day they
both cracked simultaneously. One egg brought forth Castor and Clytemestra;
the other produced Polyduces and Helen. Also known as the Dioscuri,
Castor and Pollux would mature to become the Gemini twins, symbols of
brotherly love and devotion. Clytemestra would eventually grow to become
the wife and eventual murderer of Agamennon, a name the reader is
encouraged to remember. The other lovely child, Helen, was fated to
become Helen of Troy, the most prepossessing woman in the world: a woman
who -perhaps by no fault of her own- would become the cause of the
greatest war ever waged between mortals and gods.
Leda and Tyndareus joyfully drew all the children into their arms
When the King's eye first fell on Helen, he knew that her surpassing
beauty, already evident, was indicative of divine parentage. That
realization only made him resolve to love her all the more.
*So much for the delicately constituted.
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