“So let us listen to the light—what music do we hear? For one thing, we can elicit from each chemical element its own, unique chord. You may sometimes have noticed that a bright yellow flash is produced if ordinary table salt is sprinkled on a flame…a first bare hint of the subject of flame spectra… The fact that different elements emit light with different color characteristics is exploited by the makers of fireworks.”

—  Frank Wilczek

Longing for the Harmonies: Themes and Variations from Modern Physics (1987)

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Frank Wilczek49
physicist 1951

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