What do think were the emotions of Christopher Columbus' crew on October 12, 1492, when they spotted land after a five week journey across the Atlantic Ocean? As you recall, the first island they spotted was The Bahamas, followed by Cuba and then Hispaniola.
Or Marie Curie, who discovered radium. The story of her discovery is more like Thomas Edison - hard work. She noted that air next to uranium salts conducted electricity much more readily than other minerals. Marie then sought other minerals that had a similar ionizing effect. Pitchblende displayed a much greater conductivity, so she decided that it must contain elements much more radioactive than uranium. Two of the elements she and her husband discovered in pitchblende were polonium and of course, radium.
Junior astronomer spots junior supernova tells that a 14-year-old recently used a small telescope to discover a junior supernova 70 million light-years from Earth. Designated, SN 2008ha, this new star is in the middle between an ordinary nova and a supernova in energy. The young teenager is the youngest to have ever discovered an exploding star. Mmm. That is similar to the sailor pointing out The Bahamas at 2 A.M. in the morning. She was the first to see photons produced 70 million years ago!
Similar to Madame Curie, Professor Sigurd Hofmann has discovered a New Chemical Element in the Periodic Table. It has the atomic number 112 - the number of protons in its nucleus. To produce the new element, the research team accelerated zinc atoms to strike a lead target. Zinc has atomic number 30, and lead has atomic number 82. Adding the two results in the new element 112. The research team has the honor of suggesting a name for the new element.
Discovery is important to the human psyche - it gives us reason to climb out of bed. But you don't have to be Lewis or Clark to have personal discoveries. Remember the first time you finally figured out how to ride a bicycle? Or the first time that you finally understood fractions? Wasn't that somewhat of a breathtaking moment? There are untold numbers of discoveries awaiting us every day. That person next to us may know every one of Shakespeare's sonnets, or that bumblebee on the flower is storing pollen in its knees. Instead of fast-forwarding life, let's live in it!
Thank you Zark! I really enjoyed "Discovery". It reminded me of something I learned many years ago in a course on Information Theory, namely, that "Information = Surprise". So perhaps you're right - discovery is an essential ingredient of being alive - especially when it comes along with wonder and hope.
Posted by: The Navigator | June 16, 2009 at 08:52 PM