Something

The spectrum of the sunlight was discovered by Sir Isaac Newton in the 1600s, but William Herschel wanted to know more. He conducted an experiment to measure whether each color of the spectrum differs in temperature. He placed thermometers on each of the color spectrum. As a control, he placed one just outside of the rainbow, adjacent to the color red. He expected the thermometer to only read the room temperature. But instead, the control thermometer rose even higher than the one in the red. What happened?

That was the moment when he realized that there is something in the sunlight that is unfit for humam vision to see. The invisible light. The one below the red, hence the name infra red. Even though it's undetectable by our sight, we can sense it by the warmth.

That's an interesting story that I read from a book (Astrophysics for People in a Hurry by Neil DeGrasse Tyson). That book is amazing, maybe I should do a review next time. But what I want to express here is that the discovery is in my opinion, the equivalent of having never seen any color before, having never had the idea of color, and then bam! suddenly colors explode into your vision.

People used to remotely communicate only by letter. It took a long time to reach the recipient, and it took another long wait for the reply. Until the discovery of another dweller of the spectrum, the radio waves. It was predicted by James Maxwell and detected by Heinrich Hertz. The radio waves facilitate people to communicate more conveniently.

Talking about communication. There's this show called 'Long Lost Family'. It's about a person looking for ways to be reunited with his/her family members. Some had been separated since they were too young to remember. Some never even knew that there's even a family to find. I've watched many episodes. Something amazing, at the moment of reunion, they would immediately connect with each other. They said that it felt like they had known each other for a long time.

There must be something more than the radio waves that connects people. Something beyond our senses. I don't know. Wallahua'lam bishawab.

There's only so much we have come to know, and there must be a gazillion stuff of which existence we aren't even aware of. It's so humbling. It's only natural for us to be thrilled by discoveries, and at the same time nonchalantly admiring the mystery that hasn't yet been unveiled.

May Allah always guide us to humbly venture out and explore the sea of knowledge to better fulfill our deeds and to uphold our deen. Amin.