Today’s short science question is for people like me who struggled to get a C in math.
It is about religions and the Big Bang.
Historically many, if not most, religions have "origin" stories that begin with something like, “In the beginning there was nothing and then there were somethings that became everything.”
The Big Bang Theory says the same thing ... almost 14 billion years ago “There was nothing and then there were somethings that became everything.”
Einstein’s theory sort-of explains that how you perceive an event depends on where and when your brain gets its hands around it. I think Einstein was saying “everything is relative.”
There is nothing sweet about college football … EXCEPT … “The Iowa Wave.”
It brings tears of joy to participants and viewers.
Last year The University of Iowa opened a beautiful tall, children’s hospital that towers above the Hawkeyes’ football field.
Parents and their frail children, often trailing IVs, often in wheelchairs, and nurses pushing mobile dialysis machines, press against windows to view home games.
But, that is not what opens the tear taps wide.
As word spread about the hospital opening, a fan posted on an Iowa website that something should be done for the kids.
Unexpectedly, at the end of the first quarter during the very first home game after the post, an announcer suggested fans turn away from the field and wave to kids in the hospital windows for a minute. All 80,000 did … fans, players and coaches from both teams, referees, TV crews, hot dog vendors. Everyone.
Many flipped on cell phone lights to send a double message of support.
“The Iowa Wave” now is repeated at each game.
Iowa City has become the heart of America’s Heartland.
PS: Yesterday my team (Iowa) beat Northern Iowa 38–14. To me, the win on the field was less important than the wins behind the windows.
In The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams revealed that “42” is the answer to the ultimate question of life, the universe and everything. While Mr. Adams might have been right, I have developed an equally implausible, answer.
“PIZZA” (please read on)
The somewhat flat disc starts out as a small ball of matter.
It is tossed around and flattens out.
Eventually it looks a lot like our very own universe.
And our galaxy, The Milky Way, which is like most other galaxies.
To us, The Milky Way looks like this because we are in the galaxy’s suburbs and see it’s side. The same angle as a the picnic ant crawling up to a pizza slice.
The invisibly small atoms that hold all of this together are teeny-tiny pizzas with cheese and sauce in the middle only.
Therefore, I have concluded, PIZZA is the meaning of life.
