THE GOLD BUG (EDGAR ALLAN POE) AND THE INVISIBLE INK

When I considered all these particulars, I doubted not for a moment that heat had been the agent in bringing to light, on the parchment, the skull which I saw designed on it. You are well aware that chemical preparations exist, and have existed time out of mind, by means of which it is possible to write on either paper or vellum, so that the characters shall become visible only when subjected to the action of fire. Zaffre, digested in aqua regia, and diluted with four times its weight of water, is sometimes employed; a green tint results. The regulus of cobalt, dissolved in spirit of nitre, gives a red. These colors disappear at longer or shorter intervals after the material written on cools, but again become apparent upon the re-application of heat.

Illustration by Sergiomumo

It´s very common that the invisible ink appears in mystery novels for many and different uses. Zaffre is cobalt oxide but I have some doubts about whether cobalt produces a red colour. It would be more usual, as the first part of the text says, a green colour or a blue one. Aqua regia is very well-known for all Chemistry students. It´s a mixture of nitric acid and hydrochloric acid in proportion 1:3. So, with such a composition, you can easily imagine that it can corrode and dissolve everything in its way.

YOU´RE ALL JUST JEALOUS OF MY JETPACK (TOM GAULD), INTERSTELLAR AND THE LUNAR CONSPIRACY

We have a combined post today. First, a cartoon from a very good book by Tom Gauld. Then, a scene from the film "Interstellar", also highly recommended. There are still people seduced by the idea that humans did not  really reach the moon. But indeed we did it. And we returned several times, all in the range from 1969 to 1972, as illustrated in Tom Gauld´s cartoon. I think this Interstellar´s scene is more a gesture to the film "1984" than a conversation about lunar conspiracy

CITY OF GOD (E.L. DOCTOROW) AND THE ETERNITY OF NUMBERS

I was moved to have philosophical thoughts. Why was the scale of numbers on the Nazi radio recognizable to me, a Jewish boy? Because numbers were immutable. Their order was fixe, universally true. Even Nazis had to comply with them. Well, if numbers were the same for everyone everywhere in the univerese, didn´t that mean they had to have been installed in our brains by God? And if so, why- except to each everyone the nature of truth. It was true, for example, that two plus two of anything was four. No matter what you applied them to, numbers, being fixes and eternally what they were and nothing else, epitomized truth

Illustration Marzala Surface Pattern Design

We don´t like to fall behind current events in this blog. E.L. Doctorow died last 21st July; may this entry serves as a humble tribute and a literary recommendation. In fact, I find the author´s point very convincing. That is the attraction exerted by the study of mathematics on many prone minds and, paradoxically, also the basis for the rejection, repulsion or even fear that it causes in other people 

FORTUNATA AND JACINTA( BENITO PÉREZ GALDÓS) AND THE TEACHING OF SCIENCES

At the beginning of this book, Barbarita, who will be Jacinta´s mother in law, takes part in the education of her Juanito very seriously and she helps him with his homework each day. Nowadays, she would have attended at the meeting with the tutor of Juanito at the beginning of the term and who knows if she would have belonged to the AMPA. She also helped him with Latin. I admit that I don´t understand the thing about the Retiro lion which appears in this text.It´s also remarkable that the first appararition of Fortunata in this novel is eating a raw egg, as Rocky Balboa in his breakfasts.

She also trained his memory, absolving it of useless hodgepodge, and she used to make him  understand elementary arithmetic with the aid of garbanzos or beans—she wasn't very comfortable with those abstractions any other way.To explain natural history, the teacher often resorted to the lion in the Retiro Park. It was only chemistry that left them motionless. They would gaze at each other blankly and she would end up by getting him to memorize the formulae, having observed that only pharmacists understand these things, and that anyway it all boils down to whether you add more or less water ...  

MOBY DICK (HERMAN MELVILLE) AND THE PREGNANCY OF THE WHALES

The sperm whale, as with all other species of the Leviathan, but unlike most other fish, breeds indifferently at all seasons; after a gestation which may propably be set down at nine months, producing but one at a time; though in some few known intances giving birth to an Esau and a Jacob:- a contingency provided for in suckling by two teats, curiously situated, one on each side of the anus; but the breasts themselves extend upwards from that. When by chance these precious parts in a nurisng whale are cut by the hunter´s lance, the mother´s pouring milk and blood rivallingly discolor the sea for rods. The milk is veru sweet and rich; it has been tasted by man; it might do well with strawberries

As a mammal I do not feel at all identified with the whales, I refuse to believe that we are the same kind of animal. It seems that in reality  the pregnancy of the whales lasts a bit longer than nin months. The author finds it strange the appearance of two breasts in the whale, but  his explanation is even stranger to me. With 'Moby Dick' you can learn a lot of things about whales, no doubt. I had to lokk up in Google who Esau and Jacob were

(Reading this entry  is not advisable for women in the final stages of pregnancy who are not comfortable with the changes in their bodies)

THE COMBAT FOR LIGHT (CARLOS MARZAL ) AND THE NATURE OF LIGHT.

At first, I was going to post only the five first lines of this poem, which sound very well, as if it were a prayer. Eventually, I decided to post the whole poem. It is a bit long, but I think it´s worth it. It belongs to the book “Heavy metals” from 2001. I like the line “the straight proportion of that miracle”, because it suggests that the propagation of the light is straight. The topic of light is very common in Literature and we´ll deal with it again in this blog.

For having seen the light so much, we have lost

the straight proportion of that miracle,

which gives the substance its volume,

faithful outline to the world we want

and limit to the cardinal points.

Purely out of habit, we have ended up

believing that we deserve , each day,

that the day rises in brightness

and  limpid to our eyes,

so our look can give it its own order,

different from others and turning it into

our unseen work of art.

There is a consubstantial ingratitude

to the fact of being alive, an intrinsic

power of forgetfulness, and they prevent us

from providing the tribute

that each moment deserves,

because of the absolute magic of being existing

instead of not having existed at all.

With each dubious sunrise,

with every tumultuous sunrise,

light devastates the night kingdom

and starts its combat. In the hazy

magma of darkness, with every dawn

triumphs the accuracy of everything that exists

over the vocation of uncertainty that

tempts reality with its nothingness.

In every early morning, a spell of beginning

is renewed, that formula which

imposed  movement to the first day.

We are witnesses, during the pure dawn,

of the throne where the light raises its kingdom in,

and  gives it intact to any subject.

We should contemplate the light more patiently,

Paying more exciting attention,

the submissive tribute with which a barbarian,

reverent in his adventure, discovers

the land which none has ever seen.

THE PURLOINED LETTER (EDGAR ALLAN POE) AND THE MATHEMATICIANS

In short, I never yet encountered the mere mathematician who could be trusted out of equal roots, or one who did not clandestinely hold it as a point of his faith that x squared + px was absolutely and unconditionally equal to q. Say to one of these gentlemen, by way of experiment, if you please, that you believe occasions may occur where x squared + px is not altogether equal to q, and, having made him understand what you mean, get out of his reach as speedily as convenient, for, beyond doubt, he will endeavor to knock you down.

That´s what Dtective Dupin says, and I apologize for the mathematicians. I woudn´t like  this post will create controversy between mathematicians and detectives, both professions that are represented in this blog  

SODOM AND GOMORRAH (MARCEL PROUST) AND TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENTS

At the end of this text we are told about the relativity theory, aren´t we? But the text also talks about the technology researches from that time, the relationship between technology and society,….

I don´t remember in which part of “Remembrance of Things Past “ Proust talks about his first telephone conversations and how surprised he was about them.

Talking about technological developments is not very popular in books, films or other works of art nowadays . So, we can find little reference to blogs, e-mails, mobile phones,… in current books or films and this is quite remarkable.

We realised this as soon as the vehicle, starting off, covered in one bound twenty paces of an excellent horse. Distances are  only the relation of space to time and vary with that relation. We express the difficulty that we have in getting to a place in a system of miles or kilometres which becomes false as soon as that difficulty decreases. Art is modified by it also, when a village which seemed to be in a different world from some other village becomes its neighbour in a landscape whose dimensions are altered. In any case the information that there may perhaps exist a universe in which two and two make five and the straight line is not the shortest way between two points would have astonished

A TENTH OF SECOND (ANTONIO VEGA) AND PHYSICS.

Rather than ConScienceLiterature, we open a new section which should be called “Music with Science”.

If someone had sung me “ Physics is a pleasure” in the summer of 1995´ I would have  given a hard punch on his mouth. At that time I was studying the subject Mechanics and Thermology for the September exams.

One moment in a diary,

one tenth of a second more.

It flies,  jumping from page to page,

one billion instants to talk about.

A gust of cold wind

makes a mill twist.

It keeps on rolling around its axis

describing one more trajectory.

Nothing better than imagining,

physics is a pleasure.

Nothing better than formulating,

listening and hearing at the same time.

Measure the angle between you and me,

It´s the solution to something very common here.

Now do not stop talking,

we are coordinates of a pair.

Unknown that we still have to isolate.

Look for a book that says “how”,

then another with the tittle “ if”,

a third one named “nothing”,

it is the shape of an endless circle.

Nothing better than stirring

time with coffee.

Nothing better than composing

with no guitar or paper.

Parallels are following me.

Space and time are playing chess.

Now do not stop talking.

We all know that a song is not like a poem, but I like the lines “parallels are following me” and “space and time are playing chess”. There is another cover of this song posted below sung by Miguel Ríos and Antonio Vega. And in this one, Antonio Vega looks very young and healthy, he looks like an apprentice bullfighter.

I like to see pictures of people when they were young and at their best moment before getting ruined. For instance, the rocker Silvio or even Belén Esteban.

There are many other covers of this song, among them, one sung by Bumbury that reminds me of my brother, because my brother sings like Bumbury very well. My brother would also sing like Guns and Roses and Camilo Sesto, and there were some proving that but they have disappeared mysteriously. Once, my brother let me play the harmonica while he was singing and we played an unforgettable blues

BOUVARD AND PÈCUCHET ( GUSTAVE FLAUBERT) AND MULTIPLE PROPORTIONS LAW

In order to understand chemistry they procured Regnault's course of lectures, and were, in the first place, informed that "simple bodies are perhaps compound." They are divided into metalloids and metals--a difference in which, the author observes, there is "nothing absolute." So with acids and bases, "a body being able to behave in the manner of acids or of bases, according to circumstances."

The notation appeared to them irregular. The multiple proportions perplexed Pécuchet.

"Since one molecule of _a_, I suppose, is combined with several particles of _b_, it seems to me that this molecule ought to be divided into as many particles; but, if it is divided, it ceases to be unity, the primordial molecule. In short, I do not understand." 

"No more do I," said Bouvard.

The best thing is the ending.  They seem secondary students when they blurt out “I don’t get it” in class, implying that science, or even the teacher, are to blame for the mistake.  Bouvard and Pècuchet go through the whole novel like this, science after science.