As anyone following my blog has undoubtedly heard mentioned, I am a structural biologist focusing on X-ray crystallography. However, I have always had a strong interest in space and the universe, etc. Today I was browsing through some astronomy sites for a pet project (that I may mention in a future blog) and I encountered a site discussing indexing of stellar photographs. The photographs, essentially a lot of spots on a light background, made me think of the diffraction patterns acquired from a crystal. There was no inherent similarity in the photographs, other than the dark spots on white background, but it was once of those things that causes a mental juxtaposition.
What occurred to me, regarding these two ideas, was the thought: what if the universe, or at least a galaxy, is similar to a vast multidimensional diffraction pattern, with us on the inside. In crystallographic terms, it might be like being on the inside of an Ewald’s Sphere (a concept that I, unfortunately, do not have the time or inclination to delve into here).
This is more or less where my imagination has left me, for the time being. What would be analogous to the crystal? Presumably this “crystal” would be near the dense center of the galaxy. The stars would then be the 3D representation of the positively interfering “beams” of the multidimensional diffraction experiment. Of course, all of this would likely be metaphorical for the “real” analogous process. Still it makes one think (and maybe it makes one think that I’ve been in the lab too long!).
1 comment:
Thank you for another great article. Where else could anyone get that kind of information in such a perfect way of writing? I have a presentation next week, and I am on the look for such information.
Post a Comment