Liquid to gas at temperatures so high That phase-distinctions blur and leave it there In place, that fine-wrought microscale array Of lattices the cosmic dust streams through To layer three, then rests in aerogel.
A sense conundrum: blue as Summer sky Yet hazy, thin, impalpable, a clair- Obscur of dreamy stuff some latter-day Tech-savvy alchemist might think to brew Or strange sea-beast secrete within its shell.
So many wondrous uses they apply This nearly-nothing to, this light-as-air Material poised to throw off matter's sway And do as middle spirits used to do, From Puck and Ariel to Tinkerbell.
How but by magic get that probe to fly Close in the comet's tail and track its flare Of tailback particles, with some that lay Close-latticed and returned to human view, Each with its cache of cosmic tales to tell.
The trick's to get the silica to dry, Shed liquid, yield whatever stuff's to spare When microstructure rules, and so display, In strength and lightness, all that it can do To conjure form from chaos cell by cell.
Some hopers think we humans might get by, In times to come, with new techniques to pair Carbon with silicon and then convey From brain to chip all that defines just who We are beyond the way our gene-codes fell.
Consider aerogel and you'll see why The plan won't work, how it neglects the share Of native imperfection we betray Each time we see in it the shade of blue That holds us in our sky-fixated spell.
Yet how put straight those vagaries of eye And brain that science bids we strive to square With its first rule: on no account give way To qualities like color, shade or hue And grant them space in its high citadel!
Gaze in those lucid depths and then deny, Should you so wish, that here's the mind-space where Both rivals have old debts they've yet to pay: From techne, all that falls to vision's due; From vision, all that techne's arts compel.
For it's a blue-shift world we occupy, Dilemma-prone, clear-cut solutions rare, And clashing viewpoints often held at bay By hues, just short of violet, that eschew Sharp contrasts for an azure aquarelle.
Edited by Dava Sobel
