Rainbows and Unicorns

I learned a new word last week:  spectroscopy.  Son was invited by his teacher to attend the Spectroscopy Society Banquet in May.  We discussed it at dinner, of course.

Youngest Daughter:  What is spectroscopy?

Me:  It is not colonoscopy.

Son:  Spectroscopy is the study of rainbows.

Youngest Daughter:  And unicorns?

(Of course, rainbows go with unicorns!)

Son:  No.

Youngest Daughter:  What is the study of unicorns called?

Son:  Theology.

Youngest Daughter:  Why did Son say that theology is the study of unicorns?

Me:  I don’t know!  There are no unicorns in the Bible.

Youngest Daughter:  The Bible could do with some unicorns.

I told my husband about this conversation, and he decided to search on Google.  Not for spectroscopy, but for unicorns in the Bible.  It turns out that unicorns are in the Bible!  In the King James Version, anyway.  It’s authorized, so it must be true.   

Locations of biblical unicorns – Numbers 23:22,  Numbers 24:8, Deut 33:17, Job 39:9-10, Psalm 22:21, Psalm 29:6, Psalm 92:10, Isaiah 34:7.

The Hebrew word for ‘unicorn’ is translated as ‘wild ox’ or ‘rhinoceros’ in every other translation. 

I could have asked Google about spectroscopy, but it’s much shorter to ask my son. “What good is spectroscopy?” I asked.  He replied, “Well, you can discover things with it.” 

“Like what?” 

“Helium.”

I know that Helium is good and discovered already, so I asked my husband, who gave me a lengthy informative explanation but it was after 11 p.m. so I don’t remember much.  It has to do with flinging parts of molecules around and creating a spectrum, which then reveals rainbows and unicorns. 

Science is so beautiful!