TUNING INTO THE BIG BANG

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Submitted Date 08/31/2019
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Tuning Into The Big Bang
Age 58, Beaufort, North Carolina, 2002
The picture for this poem is one of my "Big Bang" images as described in this poem. I was interviewed by National Public Radio (NPR) about this work.

-- This is one poem, from my autobiographical series of poems, that I posted here at WriteSpike. Go to my Stories section for others. They are in chronological order. --

Scientists agreed
a small percentage of static
on an analog TV
was from the Big Bang

it was left-over radiation
- the echo -
from the beginning
of the Universe

so I read up and tuned
my old TV as best as I could
to the cosmic signal
just like a distant station

a famous doctor I had worked with
whose specialty was blood cells
told me that to bring out the detail
"stain was the name of the game"

after experimenting
I found a way
to photograph and then
to enhance the signal
with digital processing

and while I could not be sure
just how much I had captured
the images were like nothing
I had made before

Static from the Big Bang, CMB, CMBR, processed digital imagery

 

 

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  • Ashley Aker 4 years, 7 months ago

    WOW! I never read that before, but what an amazing little imprint. The title is clever. Thanks Rick!

    • Rick Doble 4 years, 6 months ago

      When I first heard that static on an analog TV was due in part to static from the Big Bang, I thought it was an Urban Legend. But after much research, I confirmed that it really is true. The static is called CMB or Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation.