It was sad to hear of the sudden
death of Victoria Wood last week. She died, aged 62, following a short illness. I am sure she will be missed by many people. Her observations
on everyday life and experiences resonated with me and I am sure many others. All were beautifully
delivered in her broad Lancashire accent (she was born in Prestwich, a place
dear to my heart). One of my favourite quotes was her boyfriend comment – ‘all
my friends started getting boyfriends, but I didn’t want a boyfriend, I wanted
a thirteen-colour biro’.
The pop star Prince also died suddenly
last week. He was 57 years old. He was a phenomenally successful song writer
and performer and his work was said to be immensely influential with other
artists. However, I must be one of the few people who feel I am missing something. I don’t
understand the enthusiasm and acclaim for his work. Even his most famous song ‘Purple
Rain’ (which as I write this blog is at #1 in the UK and US charts) is losing
its appeal through over play during the last 48 hours. That was something that didn’t
happen to me when David Bowie died, aged 69, early this year and his music was
played 24 hours a day.
Sadly there has been a lot of celebrity
deaths this year. There were 4 such deaths between Jan and March in 2012, and 24
in the same period this year, and now 2 more. Many of these famous people dying
belong to the so called ‘baby-boom’ generation that is, those born between 1946
and 1964. In fact people between the ages of 65-69 are most likely to die
in this group. Slightly concerning, as I was born in 1955.
Last week also saw the commemoration
activity celebrating the life and work of one William Shakespeare, who died on the
23rd April, 1616. What I didn’t realise until last week was that over
50% of the world's children read the work of Shakespeare, or that his favourite
colour was Teal (a kind of blue) fringed with purple. Spooky if you look at
this picture of a rare stamp which was produced at the tail end of the ‘baby
boomer’ years, 1964. Its rarity comes from the fact that the knight should have
been white. And of course the Queen was 90 years old last Thursday. Apparently she
hates the colour beige, her favorite colour is blue, and nearly a third of all her outfits are
blue, including everything from Teal to Navy Blue.
Last week it was colours that attracted to the
title of a book which makes for fascinating reading: Black Hole Blues and Other
Songs from Outer Space. It is a book written by Janna Levin, which describes the
multi-million dollar experiment to find and measure gravitational waves. The language is challenging and alien and the text full of words and ideas I have never
encountered before. It tells the story of the development of the Laser
Interferometric Gravitational-Wave Observatory (Ligo). Ligo itself is a fascinating
concept – 2 tubes, 1.2 meters in diameter, and 4 kilometres long, set at right
angles to each other, within which laser light travels. This light bounces of
mirrors so perfect that they reflect 99.999% of the light. It is the tiny movement
of these mirrors that signals a passing gravitational wave.
The gravitational wave is caused
by black holes colliding out in space, and the collision is ‘heard’ rather than
seen. But for me, it is not this amazing scientific breakthrough that was
interesting but the tale of one of 3 people responsible for making it happen. It
is the story of Scottish physicist Ronald Drever. Ronald worked as a Professor at the California Institute
of Technology (Catech) – ranked the number one university in the world in the
Times Higher Education ranking since 2013. He almost fitted the archetypical
professor stereotype. He was eccentric – short, dumpy, unkempt, habitually
carrying his papers in 2 supermarket carrier bags. He never married, didn’t have
a wide circle of friends and was not interested in material things.
Whilst Ronald was undoubtedly brilliant,
some would say a genius, he wasn’t a team player. Others working with him found
his approach increasingly difficult and in 1997 he was asked to leave the Ligo
project. Soon after he was diagnosed with dementia. He now lives in a care home
in Scotland. Understanding the success of the Ligo project is beyond my
comprehension. Ronald’s current situation isn’t. I wish him well. As many people know, black is my favourite
colour, and I hope in Ronald’s world there is a memory somewhere of the importance
of being able to hear black holes colliding.
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