AI Summary
5 min readRainbows with Lulu Miller
The rainbow is not a fixed object with seven colors. It is a bridge between the world outside and the world inside—between the physics of light and the biology of perception. That is the central argument Lulu Miller brings to this conversation: the rainbow we think we know, the one with Roy G. Biv stamped into every schoolchild's memory, is largely a human invention, not a natural fact.
The rainbow before science
Before physicists got hold of it, the rainbow was treated by cultures around the world as something powerful, even dangerous. In Norse mythology it was a literal bridge the gods could walk down to earth. In Greek myth, Iris the messenger goddess passed warnings down the rainbow. In New Guinea, the rainbow was seen as a bridge to the afterlife. And across many unconnected indigenous cultures, there was a recurring warning: if you point at a rainbow, your finger could rot off. The message was consistent: this is a sacred thing. Be careful how you interact with it.
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What you'll learn
- 1 (00:20) **Introduction and Setting Up the Rainbow** - Host Sarah Marshall welcomes Lulu Miller (podcaster, author, and co-host of Radiolab and Terrestrials) to discuss the science, history, and cultural weight of rainbows.
- 2 (13:10) **Aristotle's "Muddy" Theory of Light** - The first major Western scientific theory on rainbows is introduced, which held sway for nearly 2,000 years.
- 3 (16:23) **Nasir al-Din al-Tusi: The Forgotten Genius** - Lulu highlights a 13th-century Persian scholar who anticipated modern ideas about color and infinity.
- 4 (27:32) **A Digression on Infinity and the "Singularity"** - The conversation takes a philosophical turn, exploring the psychological weight of infinite concepts.
- 5 (38:42) **Isaac Newton and the Prism Experiment** - The narrative jumps to 1665 as a plague-ridden England sends a young Isaac Newton into lockdown, where he redefines the nature of light.
- 6 (46:24) **The Invention of ROYGBIV** - Lulu reveals that the famous seven-color spectrum is largely an aesthetic and numerological choice by Newton, not a hard scientific fact.
- 7 (51:27) **Thomas Young and the Wave Theory of Light** - The final piece of the puzzle is solved by a medical student who connects the physics of light to the biology of the eye.
+ Full timestamped outline available in the app
Show Notes
Why are there so many songs about rainbows (and what’s on the other side)? A bridge between worlds, a map to a pot of gold, the centerpiece of a Lisa Frank trapper-keeper, and of course, an ever-changing symbol of the LGBTQ+ community, the rainbow has been a profound part of the human experience for thousands of years. For this early Pride Month episode, science correspondent and bisexual seagull Lulu Miller explains to Sarah the history of our understanding of rainbows: why they exist, what they are made out of, and what they have represented. Together they discuss the figures that have tried to pin down this natural wonder, the power of its spectrum of meaning, and the comfort and terror of the infinity it once represented. Digressions include the boring transcendence of 2001: A Space Odyssey, the secret joys of trigonometry, and the best gay Hannibal Lecter.
More Lulu Miller:
https://radiolab.org/team/lulu-miller
Lulu on Instagram
Lulu's book Why Fish Don't Exist
Original music in this episode brought to you by Magpie Cinema Club featuring Brendan Liu
Except for "Roy G Biv" from this episode of Lulu's WNYC show Terrestrials, which is written and performed by Alan Goffinski and included on The Bridge EP
And also Spanish Flea by Herb Alpert
Edited + Produced by Miranda Zickler:
http://linktr.ee/mirandatheswampmonster
The poem Lulu read was Singularity by Marie Howe
More You're Wrong About:
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