8
The Most Accurate Theory in Physics
“It has long been an axiom of mine that the little things are infinitely the most
important.” – Sherlock Holmes [1].
8.1 The Storm
The Blue Morpho, or Morpho peleides, is an exquisite tropical butterfly inhabiting the rainforests of South America. Its
wings gleam with a sapphire iridescence, a result of the diffraction of the forest light by the millions of tiny scales covering
their surfaces. Nature has deemed that a creature so beautiful
should not be doubly gifted, and to compensate for its splendour has cut its lifetime short, from egg to adult spanning a
mere 115 days.
Beauty, however, has little impact on predators, such as the
jacamar or the flycatcher, two of the insectivorous birds who
make the forest their home. To them, the blue colour is a beacon
advertising food, not unlike the neon-lit logo of a fast food
chain.
And so it was that on a still afternoon in the year of 1880, in
what is now known as the Common Era, a lone Blue Morpho, in
the prime of its short existence, was forced into a fight to the
death with a hungry marauder, many times its body weight. A
© The Author(s), under exclusive license
to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
R. Barrett and P. P. Delsanto, Don’t Be Afraid of Physics,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-63409-4_8
143
The Most Accurate Theory in Physics
“It has long been an axiom of mine that the little things are infinitely the most
important.” – Sherlock Holmes [1].
8.1 The Storm
The Blue Morpho, or Morpho peleides, is an exquisite tropical butterfly inhabiting the rainforests of South America. Its
wings gleam with a sapphire iridescence, a result of the diffraction of the forest light by the millions of tiny scales covering
their surfaces. Nature has deemed that a creature so beautiful
should not be doubly gifted, and to compensate for its splendour has cut its lifetime short, from egg to adult spanning a
mere 115 days.
Beauty, however, has little impact on predators, such as the
jacamar or the flycatcher, two of the insectivorous birds who
make the forest their home. To them, the blue colour is a beacon
advertising food, not unlike the neon-lit logo of a fast food
chain.
And so it was that on a still afternoon in the year of 1880, in
what is now known as the Common Era, a lone Blue Morpho, in
the prime of its short existence, was forced into a fight to the
death with a hungry marauder, many times its body weight. A
© The Author(s), under exclusive license
to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
R. Barrett and P. P. Delsanto, Don’t Be Afraid of Physics,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-63409-4_8
143