When day comes, we ask ourselves, where can we find light in this never-ending shade?
The loss we carry. A sea we must wade.
We braved the belly of the beast.
We've learned that quiet isn't always peace, and the norms and notions of what "just" is isn't always justice.
And yet the dawn is ours before we knew it.
Somehow we do it.
Somehow we weathered and witnessed a nation that isn't broken, but simply unfinished.
We, the successors of a country and a time where a skinny Black girl descended from slaves and raised by a single mother can dream of becoming president, only to find herself reciting for one.
And, yes, we are far from polished, far from pristine, but that doesn't mean we are striving to form a union that is perfect.
We are striving to forge our union with purpose.
To compose a country committed to all cultures, colors, characters and conditions of man.
And so we lift our gaze, not to what stands between us, but what stands before us.
We close the divide because we know to put our future first, we must first put our differences aside.
We lay down our arms so we can reach out our arms to one another.
We seek harm to none and harmony for all.
Let the globe, if nothing else, say this is true.
That even as we grieved, we grew.
That even as we hurt, we hoped.
That even as we tired, we tried.
That we'll forever be tied together, victorious.
Not because we will never again know defeat, but because we will never again sow division.
Scripture tells us to envision that everyone shall sit under their own vine and fig tree, and no one shall make them afraid.
If we're to live up to our own time, then victory won't lie in the blade, but in all the bridges we've made.
That is the promise to glade, the hill we climb, if only we dare.
It's because being American is more than a pride we inherit.
It's the past we step into and how we repair it.
We've seen a force that would shatter our nation, rather than share it.
Would destroy our country if it meant delaying democracy.
And this effort very nearly succeeded.
But while democracy can be periodically delayed, it can never be permanently defeated.
In this truth, in this faith we trust, for while we have our eyes on the future, history has its eyes on us.
This is the era of just redemption.
We feared at its inception.
We did not feel prepared to be the heirs of such a terrifying hour.
But within it we found the power to author a new chapter, to offer hope and laughter to ourselves.
So, while once we asked, how could we possibly prevail over catastrophe, now we assert, how could catastrophe possibly prevail over us?
We will not march back to what was, but move to what shall be: a country that is bruised but whole, benevolent but bold, fierce and free.
We will not be turned around or interrupted by intimidation because we know our inaction and inertia will be the inheritance of the next generation, become the future.
Our blunders become their burdens.
But one thing is certain.
If we merge mercy with might, and might with right, then love becomes our legacy and change our children's birthright.
So let us leave behind a country better than the one we were left.
Every breath from my bronze-pounded chest, we will raise this wounded world into a wondrous one.
We will rise from the golden hills of the West.
We will rise from the windswept Northeast where our forefathers first realized revolution.
We will rise from the lake-rimmed cities of the Midwestern states.
We will rise from the sun-baked South.
We will rebuild, reconcile, and recover.
And every known nook of our nation and every corner called our country, our people diverse and beautiful, will emerge battered and beautiful.
When day comes, we step out of the shade of flame and unafraid.
The new dawn balloons as we free it.
For there is always light, if only we're brave enough to see it.
U.S. president-elect Joe Biden and his wife, Jill Biden, arrive at his inauguration on the West Front of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 20. PATRICK SEMANSKY/THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Chief Justice Roberts, Vice-President Harris, Speaker Pelosi, Leader Schumer, Leader McConnell, Vice-President Pence and my distinguished guests, my fellow Americans: This is America’s day. This is democracy’s day. A day of history and hope, of renewal and resolve. Through a crucible for the ages, America has been tested anew. And America has risen to the challenge. Today we celebrate the triumph not of a candidate, but of a cause: the cause of democracy. The people – the will of the people – has been heard, and the will of the people has been heeded.
We’ve learned again that democracy is precious. Democracy is fragile. And at this hour, my friends, democracy has prevailed.
So now, on this hallowed ground – where just a few days ago violence sought to shake the Capitol’s very foundation – we come together as one nation, under God, indivisible, to carry out the peaceful transfer of power as we have for more than two centuries. As we look ahead in our uniquely American way – restless, bold, optimistic – and set our sights on the nation we know we can be and we must be.
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I thank my predecessors of both parties for their presence here today. I thank them from the bottom of my heart.
And I know ... and I know the resilience of our Constitution and the strength, the strength of our nation, as does President Carter who I spoke with last night, who cannot be with us today, but whom we salute for his lifetime in service.
I’ve just taken the sacred oath each of those patriots have taken. The oath first sworn by George Washington. But the American story depends not on any one of us, not on some of us, but on all of us, on we the people, who seek a more perfect union.
This is a great nation. We are good people. And over the centuries, through storm and strife, in peace and in war, we’ve come so far – but we still have far to go.
We’ll press forward with speed and urgency, for we have much to do in this winter of peril and significant possibilities. Much to repair, much to restore, much to heal, much to build and much to gain. Few people in our nation’s history have been more challenged, or found a time more challenging or difficult, than the time we’re in now.
A once-in-a-century virus that silently stalks the country. It’s taken as many lives in one year as America lost in all of World War II. Millions of jobs have been lost; hundreds of thousands of businesses closed. A cry for racial justice some 400 years in the making moves us. The dream of justice for all will be deferred no longer. A cry for survival comes from the planet itself – a cry that can’t be any more desperate or any more clear. And now a rise of political extremism, white supremacy, domestic terrorism, that we must confront and we will defeat.
To overcome these challenges, to restore the soul and secure the future of America, requires so much more than words. It requires the most elusive of all things in a democracy: unity, unity.
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Jackson Smith, 8, cheers and claps as he watches the inauguration with his family at their home in Beverly Hills, Mich. EMILY ELCONIN/REUTERS
In another January, on New Year’s Day in 1863, Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation. When he put pen to paper, the president said, and I quote: “If my name ever goes down into history, it’ll be for this act, and my whole soul is in it.”
My whole soul is in it. Today, on this January day, my whole soul is in this: bringing America together, uniting our people, uniting our nation. And I ask every American to join me in this cause.
Uniting to fight the foes we face: anger, resentment and hatred, extremism, lawlessness, violence, disease, joblessness and hopelessness.
With unity, we can do great things, important things. We can right wrongs. We can put people to work in good jobs. We can teach our children in safe schools. We can overcome the deadly virus.
We can reward work and rebuild the middle class and make health care secure for all.
We can deliver racial justice and we can make America once again the leading force for good in the world.
National Guard members salute in front of the Capitol building during the inauguration ceremony. ALLISON SHELLEY/REUTERS
I know speaking of unity can sound to some like a foolish fantasy these days. I know that the forces that divide us are deep and they are real.
But I also know they are not new. Our history has been a constant struggle between the American ideal that we all are created equal and the harsh, ugly reality that racism, nativism, fear, demonization have long torn us apart.
The battle is perennial, and victory is never assured. Through civil war, the Great Depression, world war, 9/11; through struggle, sacrifices and setbacks – our better angels have always prevailed. In each of these moments, enough of us – enough of us – have come together to carry all of us forward.
And we can do that now. History, faith and reason show the way, the way of unity. We can see each other, not as adversaries, but as neighbours. We can treat each other with dignity and respect. We can join forces, stop the shouting and lower the temperature.
For without unity, there is no peace, only bitterness and fury. No progress, only exhausting outrage. No nation, only a state of chaos.
This is our historic moment of crisis and challenge, and unity is the path forward. And we must meet this moment as the United States of America. If we do that, I guarantee you, we will not fail. We have never, ever, ever, ever failed in America when we’ve acted together.
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A Trump supporter holds a flag in West Palm Beach, Fla., on inauguration day. MARCO BELLO/REUTERS
And so today, at this time, in this place, let’s start afresh, all of us. Let’s begin to listen to one another again. Hear one another. See one another. Show respect to one another.
Politics doesn’t have to be a raging fire destroying everything in its path. Every disagreement doesn’t have to be a cause for total war.
And we must reject the culture in which facts themselves are manipulated, and even manufactured.
My fellow Americans, we have to be different than this. America has to be better than this, and I believe America is so much better than this.
Just look around. Here we stand, in the shadow of the Capitol Dome – as it was mentioned earlier – completed amid the Civil War, when the union itself was literally hanging in the balance.
Yet, we endured. We prevailed. Here we stand, looking out on the great mall where Dr. King spoke of his dream. Here we stand where, 108 years ago at another inaugural, thousands of protesters tried to block brave women marching for the right to vote. And today, we mark the swearing-in of the first woman in American history elected to national office, Vice-President Kamala Harris. Don’t tell me things can’t change!
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Open this photo in galleryThe 1913 inauguration Mr. Biden was referring to was Woodrow Wilson's, shown at top. The capital saw a large suffragist march the day before. He contrasted the era when American women couldn't vote (which ended nationally in 1920) the swearing-in of Kamala Harris as vice-president. LIBRARY OF CONGRESS; JONATHAN ERNST/POOL/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES
Here we stand, across the Potomac from Arlington cemetery, where heroes who gave the last full measure of devotion rest in eternal peace.
And here we stand, just days after a riotous mob thought they could use violence to silence the will of the people, to stop the work of our democracy, to drive us from this sacred ground.
It did not happen. It will never happen. Not today. Not tomorrow. Not ever. Not ever.
To all those who supported our campaign: I’m humbled by the faith that you’ve placed in us.
To all of those who did not support us, let me say this: Hear me out as we move forward. Take a measure of me and my heart. If you still disagree, so be it. That’s democracy. That’s America. The right to dissent peaceably. Within the guardrails of our republic, it is perhaps this nation’s greatest strength.
Yet hear me clearly: Disagreement must not lead to disunion. And I pledge this to you: I will be a president for all Americans, all Americans. And I promise you, I will fight as hard for those who did not support me as for those who did.
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Mr. Biden, Ms. Harris and their spouses attend a church service before the inauguration at the Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle. TOM BRENNER/REUTERS
Many centuries ago, St. Augustine, a saint of my church, wrote that a people was a multitude defined by the common objects of their love. Defined by the common objects of their love. What are the common objects we as Americans love, that define us as Americans?
I think we know: Opportunity, security, liberty, dignity, respect, honour and, yes, the truth. The recent weeks and months have taught us a painful lesson. There is truth and there are lies, lies told for power and for profit. And each of us has a duty and a responsibility as citizens, as Americans and especially as leaders – leaders who have pledged to honour our Constitution and protect our nation – to defend the truth and defeat the lies.
Look, I understand that many of my fellow Americans view the future with fear and trepidation. I understand they worry about their jobs. I understand, like my dad, they lay in bed wondering: Can I keep my health care? Can I pay my mortgage? Thinking about their families, about what comes next. I promise you, I get it.
But the answer is not to turn inward, to retreat into competing factions, distrusting those who don’t look like you, or worship the way you do, or don’t get their news from the same source as you do. We must end this uncivil war that pits red against blue, rural versus urban, conservative versus liberal. We can do this if we open our souls instead of hardening our hearts; if we show a little tolerance and humility; and if we are willing to stand in the other person’s shoes – as my mom would say – just for a moment. Stand in their shoes.
Because here’s the thing about life: There’s no accounting for what fate will deal you. Some days, when you need a hand. There are other days when we’re called to lend a hand. That’s how it has to be. That’s what we do for one another.
And if we are this way, our country will be stronger, more prosperous, more ready for the future. And we can still disagree.
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Christine Alverno and her daughter Julia Crump, of Troy, Mich., try to get a glimpse of Mr. Biden as he leaves church on inauguration day. JACQUELYN MARTIN/THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
My fellow Americans, in the work ahead of us, we’re going to need each other. We need all our strength to persevere through this dark winter.
We’re entering what may be the toughest and deadliest period of the virus. We must set aside politics and finally face this pandemic as one nation, one nation. And I promise you this: As the Bible says, “Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning.” We will get through this together. Together.
Look, folks, all my colleagues that I served with in the House and the Senate up here: We all understand, the world is watching, watching all of us today. So here’s my message to those beyond our borders: America has been tested, and we’ve come out stronger for it. We will repair our alliances and engage with the world once again – not to meet yesterday’s challenges, but today’s and tomorrow’s challenges. And we’ll lead not merely by the example of our power, but by the power of our example. We’ll be a strong and trusted partner for peace, progress and security.
Look, you all know, we’ve been through so much in this nation. In my first act as President, I’d like to ask you to join me in a moment of silent prayer to remember all those who we lost in this past year to the pandemic, those 400,000 fellow Americans: moms, dads, husbands, wives, sons, daughters, friends, neighbours and co-workers. We’ll honour them by becoming the people and the nation we know we can and should be. So, I ask you, let’s say a silent prayer for those who have lost their lives, and those left behind, and for our country.
Amen.
Flags line the National Mall in front of the Capitol, representing the Americans who aren't able to watch the event in person due to the COVID-19 restrictions on large crowds in Washington. STEPHANIE KEITH/GETTY IMAGES
Folks, this is a time of testing. We face an attack on our democracy and on truth, a raging virus, growing inequity, the sting of systemic racism, a climate in crisis, America’s role in the world.
Any one of these would be enough to challenge us in profound ways – but the fact is, we face them all at once, presenting this nation with one of the gravest responsibilities we’ve had.
Now we’re going to be tested. Are we going to step up, all of us? It’s time for boldness, for there is so much to do.
And this is certain: I promise you, we will be judged, you and I, by how we resolve these cascading crises of our era. Will we rise to the occasion, is the question. Will we master this rare and difficult hour? Will we meet our obligations and pass along a new and better world to our children? I believe we must. I’m sure you do as well. I believe we will.
And when we do, we’ll write the next great chapter in the history of the United States of America, the American story, a story that might sound something like a song that means a lot to me. It’s called American Anthem. And there’s one verse that stands out, at least for me, and it goes like this:
The work and prayers of centuries have brought us to this day
What shall be our legacy? What will our children say?
Let me know in my heart when my days are through
America, America, I gave my best to you
Let’s, us, add our own work and prayers to the unfolding story of our great nation.
If we do this, then when our days are through, our children and our children’s children will say of us: “They gave their best, they did their duty, they healed a broken land.”
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Joe Biden is sworn in as president by Chief Justice John Roberts as Jill Biden holds the Bible. ANDREW HARNIK/THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
My fellow Americans, I close the day where I began, with a sacred oath before God and all of you. I give you my word: I will always level with you. I will defend the Constitution. I’ll defend our democracy. I’ll defend America. And I’ll give all, all of you, keep everything I do in your service, thinking not of power but of possibilities, not of personal injuries but the public good.
And together we shall write an American story of hope, not fear. Of unity, not division. Of light, not darkness. A story of decency and dignity, love and healing, greatness and goodness.
May this be the story that guides us, the story that inspires us and the story that tells ages yet to come that we answered the call of history. We met the moment. Democracy and hope, truth and justice, did not die on our watch, but thrived, that America secured liberty at home and stood once again as a beacon to the world. That is what we owe our forebears, one another and generations to follow.
So, with purpose and resolve, we turn to those tasks of our time, sustained by faith, driven by conviction and devoted to one another and the country we love with all our hearts.
May God bless America and may God protect our troops.
Thank you, America.
The Bidens leave the Capitol's west front after the swearing-in ceremony. CHANG W. LEE/POOL VIA REUTERS
IMPEACHMENT: FORMER REPUBLICAN
Guest: Steve Schmidt
CH: Donald Trump is now the only president in United States history to be impeached twice. This afternoon, the Democrat-led House of Representatives voted in favour of an article of impeachment that accused Mr. Trump of incitement of insurrection. The proceedings have revealed fractures in the president's party in his final days in office. Ten Republican representatives also voted in favour of impeachment, including the number three House Republican Liz Cheney. Steve Schmidt is one of the founders of the Lincoln Project and a longtime GOP strategist who left the party during the Trump presidency.
CO: Mr. Schmidt, no House Republicans voted in favour of impeachment last time. What does it say to you that there were 10 who support impeachment today?
STEVE SCHMIDT: Well, it says that. The Republican Party has broken into two factions, an autocratic faction, which is the Trump faction which incited insurrection, incited violence at the United States capital, which fell last week to Trump's thugs. And it shows that there is a bipartisan consensus that wants accountability for the criminal president of the United States and the unfathomable, unprecedented breach of his oath of office.
CO: A number of the speeches that people gave today, some of them clearly still support Mr. Trump and his rhetoric and his claims. But numbers of others said that they condemned him for what they did or criticised him, but they felt that this wasn't the way to go, that it was time to seek a higher ground, I think someone said to tone down the rhetoric. Should they be regarded differently amongst the Republicans?
SS: They should not be regarded differently. And the offer they're making is extremely disingenuous. "Tone down the rhetoric" after four years of complicit silence, listening to Donald Trump stoke a cold civil war that culminated in violent desecration of the floor of the House of Representatives, the floor of the United States Senate, Confederate flags being carried through the Rotunda, the United States Capitol, the Citadel of freedom, the people's house? At the end of the day, what they offer is appeasement to all of us who believe in American democracy. What they offer is surrender to the autocratic movement that Trump has birthed in the United States. And at the end of the day, we saw last week seven United States senators and 147 members of Congress rise in the name of a conspiracy theory that was factually rejected on 60 different occasions in federal courts seeking to disenfranchise tens of millions of Black voters to install the loser of the presidential election as the winner, which would have brought about the downfall of the American republic in its 244th year of independence.
CO: Do you think that the Republicans who voted against impeachment today and those who were voting last week, do you think that they actually believe that -- they actually support him -- or are they afraid of him, afraid of his influence and power. But there are a sizable number, millions of people in your country, who support those people who were on Capitol Hill on last Wednesday. So why is that?
SS: Well, obviously, a majority of the country does not support American autocracy -- a majority of the country decisively voted for Joe Biden. But we have a problem in the country because the president of the United States has been faithless to American democracy. And we see this all over the world. Canada is not immune to this. We see this in Europe. We see Democratic rescission everywhere we look. It's a dangerous movement. So we're going to be in a fight in America for the next 25 or 30 years where the pro-democracy side can never again lose a national election to the autocracy side, or it will be the last election we ever have in America.
CO: You said at the beginning that there was a split, a clear schism in the Republican Party, what we saw today. So what happens? Do you see the party does split apart? Is that the future?
SS: Yeah. Look, the autocrat will not be able to sit next to the small-d Democrats inside the Republican conference. 147 people rose to throw out the results of an election that would have brought about the downfall of the country, that's not a reconcilable position. You have a conservative movement led by Liz Cheney and an autocratic faction led by Kevin McCarthy. And one of the things that you're seeing is this movement by corporate America to fundamentally defund the autocratic faction of the Republican Party by refusing to give contributions ever again to any candidate, to any member, to any committee controlled by any member who rose to strike down American democracy, who rose to disenfranchised millions of Black voters, who rose in defence of conspiracy theories, who lied to the country, embraced the big lie and incited insanity until it spilt over into violence in the capital of the United States
There is a deeper reality beneath that wch appears to our senses
Reality is not always as it appears to the senses!
In some ways The entire physical world as it presents itself to our senses is an illusion.
The evidence of our senses is often unreliable. We should not be controlled or dominated by the evidence of. our senses alone.
To blindly believe in and accept the evidence of our senses at face value , is to be fooled!
The eye may see the large as small
To our eyes the sun appears the size of a bowl; but reason/intelligence tells us that the sun is much,much larger!. Our eyes see the sun traversing the sky from dawn to dusk, but reason tells us this is a perceptual illusion caused by the rotation of the earth.
When we stand on a basketball we are very aware of the curvature of the sphere we are standing on; but when we stand on a sphere the size of the earth we have no awareness of its curvature...and indeed the earth appears to our senses to be flat
When we stand still on the surface of the earth we are completely unaware of any sensation of motion...yet the earth is orbiting the sun at the astonishing speed of 29.658 km/second. (Total circumference of earth's orbit divided by the solar year is 365 days,5 hours,48 minutes, 46 seconds!) ... and the velocity of our Sun's orbit around the galaxy is about 220 km/s.(230 million years to complete one orbit around t he center of our Milky Way galaxy)
There are countless other instances (e.g. Moonlight is actually (reflected) sunlight...and stars are not stars at all, but distant suns!). where reason belies the evidence of our senses.
This does not mean we should distrust and totally dismiss the evidence of our senses (our senses are our primary means of acquiring knowledge) ...but rather that we must look deeper. We must question, verify and interpret this sensory evidence according to reason and intelligence.
If we depart from the earth at the speed of light, to our eyes the earth disappears (becomes invisible)because no light leaving the earth can reach us.When we look back at the earth our eyes can only see blackness. But reason tells us that the earth is receding from us at the speed of light,and the distance between us is increasing at. 299792.458 km/second.
Or to put it in another equivalent way the space/distance between us is expanding at approximately 300,000. km/sec
All motion is measured relative to a stationary object or fixed pointl
According to the relativity of motion, no observational frame of reference has preferential status or superiority/exclusivity
If we transpose our view point (observational frame of reference) to the. photon and use it as our fixed frame of reference, it is the earth that is moving away from the photon at light speed.
This " thought experiment" contravenes the dogma that no object possessing mass can travel at the speed of light.
This .may be why any light or light source moving away from us at light speed is invisible and undetectable (as in "dark energy/dark matter"). Perhaps we should think of darkness not as the absence of light,but rather as light that is receding from us, or unable to catch up to us!
When we peer deeper into the apparently dark spaces between the stars we see more stars and more light. The deeper into space we look, the more light we are able to see/capture. Is there a way of knowing how much of what exists in the universe Is in the form of light (electromagnetic radiation)?
rhaps Most of what. exists is in the form of light, most of wc h is invisible and not measureable
It is a mystery how the further back in space we look,the further back in time we see!
Is there a limit to how deep we can look and how far back we can see?!
Perhaps some day we will be able to see all the way back to the light that was transmitted from the original source 14.7 billion years ago!
Perhaps we will be able to see the Big Bang ( the First Cause)-- the beginning of the universe! The beginning of time!
Flowers can hear buzzing bees—and it makes their nectar sweeter
PHOTOGRAPH BY DENNIS FRATES/ ALAMY READ CAPTION
“I’d like people to understand that hearing is not only for ears.”
4 Minute Read
By Michelle Z. Donahue
PUBLISHED
Even on the quietest days, the world is full of sounds: birds chirping, wind rustling through trees, and insects humming about their business. The ears of both predator and prey are attuned to one another’s presence.
Sound is so elemental to life and survival that it prompted Tel Aviv University researcher Lilach Hadany to ask: What if it wasn’t just animals that could sense sound—what if plants could, too? The first experiments to test this hypothesis, published recently on the pre-print server bioRxiv, suggest that in at least one case, plants can hear, and it confers a real evolutionary advantage.
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Hadany’s team looked at evening primroses (Oenothera drummondii) and found that within minutes of sensing vibrations from pollinators’ wings, the plants temporarily increased the concentration of sugar in their flowers’ nectar. In effect, the flowers themselves served as ears, picking up the specific frequencies of bees’ wings while tuning out irrelevant sounds like wind.
The sweetest sound
As an evolutionary theoretician, Hadany says her question was prompted by the realization that sounds are a ubiquitous natural resource—one that plants would be wasting if they didn’t take advantage of it as animals do. If plants had a way of hearing and responding to sound, she figured, it could help them survive and pass on their genetic legacy.
Since pollination is key to plant reproduction, her team started by investigating flowers. Evening primrose, which grows wild on the beaches and in parks around Tel Aviv, emerged as a good candidate, since it has a long bloom time and produces measurable quantities of nectar.
A brown and yellow hoverfly rests on a dewdrop-covered evening primrose in the U.K.
Photograph by MichaelGrantWildlife/ Alamy
To test the primroses in the lab, Hadany’s team exposed plants to five sound treatments: silence, recordings of a honeybee from four inches away, and computer-generated sounds in low, intermediate, and high frequencies. Plants given the silent treatment—placed under vibration-blocking glass jars—had no significant increase in nectar sugar concentration. The same went for plants exposed to high-frequency (158 to 160 kilohertz) and intermediate-frequency (34 to 35 kilohertz) sounds.
But for plants exposed to playbacks of bee sounds (0.2 to 0.5 kilohertz) and similarly low-frequency sounds (0.05 to 1 kilohertz), the final analysis revealed an unmistakable response. Within three minutes of exposure to these recordings, sugar concentration in the plants increased from between 12 and 17 percent to 20 percent.
A sweeter treat for pollinators, their theory goes, may draw in more insects, potentially increasing the chances of successful cross-pollination. Indeed, in field observations, researchers found that pollinators were more than nine times more common around plants another pollinator had visited within the previous six minutes.
“We were quite surprised when we found out that it actually worked,” Hadany says. “But after repeating it in other situations, in different seasons, and with plants grown both indoors and outdoors, we feel very confident in the result.”
Flowers for ears
As the team thought about how sound works, via the transmission and interpretation of vibrations, the role of the flowers became even more intriguing. Though blossoms vary widely in shape and size, a good many are concave or bowl-shaped. This makes them perfect for receiving and amplifying sound waves, much like a satellite dish.
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