[Faith's Blog] Sunsets, Scattering, and Similes

There are two sides to every coin. And there are (at least) two ways to describe any natural phenomenon. Take a sunset, for example. A physicist may describe a sunset as the electromagnetic radiation from the Sun undergoing Rayleigh scattering as it passes through the atmosphere low on the horizon, causing the shorter blue wavelengths of light to be scattered away while leaving the longer red wavelengths to reach the observer. However, a poet may just as soon describe the very same event as a poignantly emotional moment that arouses a sense of finality and subdued reflection as a chapter of life comes to a close. And then there’s also your mom for whom it is the non-negotiable end of your backyard safari (Why? Because she says so.), but I digress.

A lovely sunset as seen from the International Space Station, credit: NASA
This duality, or multiplicity as the case may be, of descriptions for a single phenomenon is an example of what British scientist and novelist CP Snow once described in his book entitled “The Two Cultures.” In his experience, modern society seemed hopelessly split into two camps -the humanities and the sciences. Each ‘culture’ had its own distinct ...