Brain Food #837: The humming of the universe

Sitting in silence

Thoughts of the day

The return to something, to restart, is sometimes harder than it is to continue, which is why momentum is so important, why it is harder to get a ball rolling than to keep it going down a hill. But pauses are always necessary to reconsider and recalibrate one’s place, to make room for what is coming next.

Since Brain Food has taken a nearly two-month hiatus, it made sense to return to its roots, sharing a simple quote that resonated over the summer. Ted Chiang’s short story The Great Silence, explores our disregard for animals in favour of our search for alien life, and also our tendency to ignore what is closer to home in favour of the exotic:

“According to Hindu mythology, the universe was created with a sound: “Om.” It’s a syllable that contains within it everything that ever was and everything that will be.

When the Arecibo telescope is pointed at the space between stars, it hears a faint hum.

Astronomers call that the “cosmic microwave background.” It’s the residual radiation of the Big Bang, the explosion that created the universe fourteen billion years ago.

But you can also think of it as a barely audible reverberation of that original “Om.” That syllable was so resonant that the night sky will keep vibrating for as long as the universe exists.

When Arecibo is not listening to anything else, it hears the voice of creation.”

Scientists have indeed discovered a humming sound in the universe. The theory is that they are gravitational waves, traveling through the cosmos. Though they have been there all along, this is the first time we have managed to hear them. Perhaps there is no message hidden beyond the obvious, that all we need may be much closer than we think, sitting in silence, waiting to be discovered.

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I write Brain Food out of my own desire and willingness to share what I find interesting and to inspire others, and help them see life in a different light. All of Brain Food is free, but if you would like to subscribe or pledge your support of my work by committing to a future paid subscription you can do so below: