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Joined: Mar 2002
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Mar 2002
Posts: 1,692 |
A report in the New Scientist for 11th May reintroduced an old concept with the word quintessence. Quintessence was the name ancient and medieval philosophers gave to what they thought of as a fifth element forming heavenly bodies and pervading all things.
The word was used in the report to denote (paraphrasing here) “a mysterious energy field that behaves like a kind of repulsive gravity (someone is bound to pick up on that!) and might explain the accelerating expansion of the universe.” A diet of quintessence they feel might also have fed black holes at the very moment of the big bang.
Sounds like much the same idea as those old philosopher’s had. What goes around comes around!
If some astrophysicists think, as the report says, that an energy field - quintessence - was available to fatten up baby black holes in the first split second of the Universe’s existence I should like to know where they think it came from. The report doesn’t say.
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Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 320
enthusiast
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enthusiast
Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 320 |
"What a piece of work is man! How noble in reason! how infinite in faculties! in form and moving, how express and admirable! in action how like an angel! in apprehension, how like a god! the beauty of the world! the paragon of animals! And yet, to me, what is this quintessence of dust? Man delights not me; no, nor woman neither, though by your smiling you seem to say so."
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,819
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,819 |
"Quintessence" was the answer (or rather the question) on final Jeopardy the other night.
The British rock group Squeeze had a song called "In Quintessence." Squeeze always had great lyrics that managed to be cerebral, literary or witty without ever coming off as dry.
I am not sure the lyrics below are entirely correct, (the line "A 15 year old's browse through life" sounds to me like "A 15 year old's barstool life," and "bible of romance" sounds to me more like "bottled up romance") but it is a nifty little song...
In Quintessence (Difford/Tilbrook)
He smokes himself into double vision
Leaves his mind on an indecision,
Thinks he's invented imagination
Says that God is some relation.
He leaves his cigarette burning on the desk
His clothes and magazines make up such a mess,
Sitting up in bed transistor on his chest
In quintessence.
He and his friends sit around all evening
Leaving their laughter upon the ceiling,
Seems so funny yet it leaves me yawning
Then I find it's the following morning.
He says his girlfriend lives too far away
Always at a friend's house or on holiday,
His bible of romance hides itself away
In quintessence.
A 15 year old's browse through life,
is fine with his quintessence safe and sound in mind,
Life's an adolescence from time to time
With us all
in quintessence.
In the corner with his book and tissue
All he can do is pretend to miss you,
Closes his eyes as he sees her body
Pulls funny faces and that's his hobby.
On the other hand love ain't a happy word
On the other hand love ain't a piece of skirt,
Makes for something special in your football shirt
in quintessence.
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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613 |
Well, dxb, I couldn't find the article, but. For what it's worth, I'd always thought of quintessence as the ultimate, most perfect example of something, as in: Bach's compositions are the quintessence of Baroque music.
By the "fifth element", did they mean besides earth, water, fire, and air? I haven't any problem with the term repulsive gravity; repulsion is, after all, the opposite of attraction. So of course things would move away from one another. Your question on where the supposed energy field came from intrigues me. Here's my theory, based on your phrase 'at the moment of the big bang': that the bang created an energy field, and since energy can move faster than objects, that this field swept out ahead of whatever celestial bodies were on the move. Like a shock wave raditates out first when a bomb has exploded.
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Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 2,788
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 2,788 |
In the fifth book of Rabelais' "The lives, heroic deeds and sayings of Gargantua and his son Pantagruel," the Queen Quintessence appears. She ruled a city which might be understood as the capital of speculative science, which, it strikes me, is what Jackie is doing in contemplating the energy bumps in the Universe.
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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 1,027
old hand
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old hand
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 1,027 |
Even though I admit that there is no science without speculation, I have some trouble with the notion of fatten[ing] up baby black holes. It sounds a bit like "crushed under a mountain of debt..". "Quintessence", originally synonymous to "philosopher's stone", is often used loosely by those who are not satisfied with the hyperbolic impact of "essence". They probably think it is five times more powerful  .
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