Emily Dickinson proved wrong by science twins!

Emily Dickinson was a remarkable genius but one of her most famous observations has just been blown sky high by a pair of 14 year old twins. Emily wrote:

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It's a nice poem, a deep poem and one that lots of scientists quote with approval. (Albeit, mumbling slightly when they get to the bit about God.) But a remarkable new "powers of 10" animation by 14 year old twin brothers Michael & Cary Huang proves that we fall a long way short. Their beautiful animation lets you scroll effortlessly through the scales of the universe from the teeny weeeny Planck Length 10^-35 metres  all the way up to 10^26 m, the franky bonkers size of the observable universe. [caption id="attachment_1602" align="alignleft" width="1003"]

Scale of the universe 10^[/caption]

As this animation helpfully shows, Douglas Adams was closer to the mark:

"Space, is big.  Really big.  You just won't believe how vastly hugely mind-bogglingly big it is.  I mean, you might think it's a long walk down the road to the chemist, but that's just peanuts to space." -The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy.

He nicely lampoons the fact that when try to comprehend the scale of the universe our analogies and experiences quickly break down. At 10^26m the sky is definitely wider than the mind can ever truly comprehend. And just in case you get cocky and say that Haung twins have squeezed the universe down to fit in human brains, remember that this is just the observable universe.

Sorry Emily. Scale of the universe