Tuesday, November 17, 2015

Going up in Space and Playing Music

I have never had the desire to travel outside of the Earth's atmosphere. I never really understood why anyone would want to do such a thing until I heard an Inquiring Minds interview with Cady Coleman. She describes life and work in a space station kind of like the way I would describe playing a Mozart String Quintet.

Then again Coleman IS a musician.



I wonder what you would have to do in zero gravity to keep a bow on the string?

1 comment:

Philip Amos said...

There is a connection here that gravely needs examination in itself. At present, it is done only in bits and pieces in the course of works on other aspects of the Universe. I refer to the role music plays in writings on quantum physics in particular, though also cosmic physics. I just plucked off a shelf a book on the Universe by an eminent physicist and was quickly reminded that it is full of musical metaphors, as was a work on quantum physics I just finished. I took down another, opened it, and there was the name 'Bach'. We are very lucky that there is a host of eminent physicists who have the rare knack of writing about these vastly difficult subjects without talking down. It is not easy reading, but the revelations are well-worth the struggle. Many mathematicians and physicists have something of a fascination with music, and Bach in particular. Is music simply in some way parallel, a good source of metaphors and similes -- or is it inherent in the Universe?