THANKFUL FRIDAY

The temperatures dropped over night here. One day it was seventy eight degrees and the next day the high was forty six. Then it snowed. Then temperatures dropped to freezing and kids had to bundle up for trick or treating. There’s a whole list of complaints that I could make about it. I definitely did/do not feel ready for freezing temperatures, but to be fair I’m never ready for it.

A big factor in how seasons are determined is the maximum intensity of sunlight in a given area. That intensity changes as the Earth makes it’s way around the sun because of the Earth’s axis tilt. Really digging in to understanding the physics of all of this makes me want to puke and is the reason I am not an Earth scientist or physicist. I much prefer the biology of super tiny things, but my understanding of the very basic physics behind the seasons is how I know what times of the year produce the best rainbows from the glass on my cubicle.

We are creeping into peak rainbow season here in my office.

This week, the most perfect rainbow was projected onto the wall by desk. It was a textbook example of what we would use to teach people about wavelengths and colors. Okay…some physics has rubbed off on me. I can’t do my job in microscopy without some knowledge of how light, excitation and emission wavelengths work. Even though I know how it works, I am still blown away when it happens on my wall or even in the sky because I know how precise the conditions have to be in order to make a rainbow. With outside rainbows that happen after rain, you are lucky to see four distinct colors. Often, one color dominates the others. This happens with the sun and glass on my cubicle too. The rainbow will be more blue, yellow and green and faint. As the season changes into late Fall and early Winter, those colors even out and get brighter. Then comes the days when that rainbow contains the whole roygbiv of colors and it is bright and vibrant.

And it lasts for about five minutes.

I took my picture and then answered an email. Five minutes later I looked at the wall and the rainbow had faded to hints of color. It does not just require the right angle of light and reflective source, but it requires the right time of day. You have to be standing at my desk at precisely 8:19 AM because by 8:24 AM, the rainbow is mostly gone. There’s something miraculous in all of this, that it happens at all, that light is white until we bounce it through different refractive indexes and surfaces. Knowing the science behind the how and why light does this doesn’t diminish the amazement and joy I feel whenever I encounter a rainbow happening.

In fact, I think that knowing the science behind it and how everything has to be perfectly aligned to make a rainbow happen, makes the experience of seeing one an awe inspiring event every time.