IN 1991 DAVID ICKE WAS RIDICULED THROUGHOUT THE UK FOR WEARING
TURQUOISE AND
STRESSING ITS IMPORTANCE IN THE NATIONAL MEDIA. THEY SAID HE WAS
A LUNATIC. NOW A SCIENTIST HAS REVEALED THAT TURQUOISE IS THE BASE COLOUR OF THE UNIVERSE.
IN 1991 DAVID ICKE WAS RIDICULED THROUGHOUT THE UK FOR WEARING
TURQUOISE AND
STRESSING ITS IMPORTANCE IN THE NATIONAL MEDIA. THEY SAID HE WAS
A LUNATIC.
The Daily Telegraph (Britain)
Friday, January 11, 2002
"THE COLOUR OF THE UNIVERSE IS PALE TURQUOISE"
By David Derbyshire
Science Correspondent
SPACE is not black, but an elegant shade of pale green, a team
of astronomers
announced last night. After studying the light emitted by
200,000 galaxies,
they concluded that the average colour of the universe is
between turquoise
and aquamarine.
The discovery that the universe has a colour, and that it would
not look
amiss on a bathroom wall, will come as no surprise to New Age
followers such
as David Icke, who wore turquoise because he considered it was
the most
natural colour.
Karl Glazebrook, of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore,
announced the
colour to startled colleagues at the American Astronomical
Society in
Washington yesterday. "It is quite close to the standard shade
of pale
turquoise, although it's a few per cent greener," he said.
For those wanting to replicate the colour of the universe at
home, it lies
somewhere between Mexican mint, jade cluster and shangri-la silk
in the Delux
range. In the Crown Paint green collection, it appears to be a
cross between
soft khaki and cool aqua.
Although the finding could have implications for interior
designers and
artists, the discovery was part of a serious attempt to test
theories about
how stars and galaxies form.
The team used data from more than 200,000 galaxies collected by
the
Australian Galaxy Redshift Survey. Using the visible portion of
the spectrum,
Dr. Glazebrook and his colleague Ivan Baldry produced a chart
they called the
"cosmic spectrum".
This allowed them to work out the total amount of light emitted
by the
universe for any given wavelength, or colour. The information
was used to
check four different models of star formation. But it also
allowed them to
work out the "average" colour of everything as seen by the human
eye.
"We believe that the survey is large enough, reaching out
several billion
light years, to make this a truly representative sample," said
Dr. Baldry,
who described the research as "a bit of fun".
They believe that the universe probably started with a "blue
period", when
young blue stars dominated. It is now in a "green period" and
will eventually
enter a "red period" when the older, redder stars will dominate.
Link URL for websites
http://www.davidicke.com/icke/articles2002/turquoise1.html
