SCIENCE WATCH: THE UNSEEN AND UNHEARD UNIVERSE - THE REALITY YOU NEVER PERCEIVE

SCIENCE WATCH: 

THE UNSEEN AND UNHEARD UNIVERSE 

THE REALITY YOU NEVER PERCEIVE 

Good morning, and welcome to another edition of Science Watch. Today, we're exploring a concept that is as humbling as it is mind-expanding: the world you experience is not the world as it is. You are living in a carefully constructed simulation, not of silicon and code, but of biology and evolution.

We navigate our days believing our eyes and ears are giving us a full and accurate report of reality. But the truth is, we are all living in a sensory bubble, perceiving only a tiny, survival-critical sliver of the vast cosmos.

The Narrow Band of Existence

Consider the light that paints our world. Our eyes are remarkable, but they are tuned to detect only a minuscule portion of the electromagnetic spectrum—the narrow band we call "visible light," from about 380 to 770 nanometres. This is our keyhole to the universe.

But what lies outside that keyhole? A riot of invisible activity:

· Beyond the violet: Ultraviolet light, which bees use to see patterns on flowers, and X-rays that reveal our bones.

· Beyond the red: Infrared radiation, which we feel as heat and which snakes can "see" to hunt warm-blooded prey.

· Further out: Radio waves that carry music and data through solid walls, and gamma rays from the most violent events in the universe.

The same is true for sound. The human ear is tuned to frequencies between 20 Hz and 20,000 Hz. But the universe is far noisier. The deep rumble of earthquakes and ocean waves exists as infrasound, below our hearing. Meanwhile, the sophisticated echolocation of dolphins and bats takes place in the ultrasonic range, a high-frequency chorus completely silent to us.

The Cosmic Ghosts Passing Through You

Perhaps the most profound example of our sensory limitations is happening to you right now, as you read this. Trillions of subatomic particles called neutrinos are streaming through your body every second. Born in the nuclear furnaces of the sun and distant supernovae, these "ghost particles" interact so weakly with matter that they pass through the entire Earth—and you—as if it were empty space. You will never feel a single one.

Widening the Keyhole with Technology

Human ingenuity has given us the tools to break out of our biological prison. We are no longer confined to our innate senses.

· Infrared cameras allow us to see the heat signature of a living creature or the thermal energy leaking from a home.

· Radio telescopes don't see visible light; they "listen" to radio waves from space, revealing pulsars, quasars, and the faint afterglow of the Big Bang itself.

· Ultrasonic sensors map the ocean floor and allow doctors to see a developing fetus.

Yet, even with all our technological prowess, the greatest constituents of the universe remain shrouded in mystery. Scientists estimate that the ordinary matter we see and are made of constitutes a mere 5% of the cosmos. The other 95% is the hidden universe, dominated by the enigmatic dark matter and dark energy. We cannot see, touch, or directly detect them, yet we know they exist by their gravitational influence—holding galaxies together and driving the accelerated expansion of the universe.

A Humbling Perspective

This is not just a collection of fun facts; it's a fundamental shift in perspective. Our perception was built by evolution for survival on Earth, not for comprehending the ultimate nature of reality. The colors, sounds, and textures of our world are a useful interface, not the underlying code.

The universe is larger, stranger, and more magnificent than our senses could ever allow us to imagine. The realization that we are blind to most of it is not a cause for despair, but for wonder. It means the adventure of discovery is endless, and we are only just beginning to uncover the rest.

Science Watch Fact: At this very moment, approximately 100 trillion neutrinos from the sun are passing through your body without you ever knowing.

For Science Watch, I'm SURI . Stay curious!

Sources for further reading:

· NASA Science: "The Electromagnetic Spectrum"

· Nature Astronomy: "The Search for Dark Matter"

· Scientific American: "The Neutrino Puzzle"

Grateful thanks to AI ASSISTANT DEEPSEEK for its wonderful help and support in creating this blogpost!🙏🙏🙏