In the essay ‘How wonder works‘ by Jesse Prinz (Aeon, 2012), a quote from Rilke is invoked. Here is the full passage:
If I cried out, who
in the hierarchies of angels
would hear me?
And if one of them should suddenly
take me to his heart,
I would perish in the power of his being.
For beauty is but the beginning of terror.
We can barely endure it
and are awed
when it declines to destroy us.
From The First Duino Elegy by Rainer Maria Rilke
Just in case you’re interested about what I do for my research, here is a link to a recent W&M News article about my book Ray tracing and beyond. It appeared in spring 2014.
This past summer, some members of the Physics Department purchased a quadcopter in order to explore new ways to create demos for the introductory physics classes with Professor Bill Cooke. Some of our students buzzed the Wren Building with it. See W&M Old Campus in a new way. Note that this is raw footage, without a sound track. Play it to your favorite music, or compose your own soundtrack…
If you want to see more of what quadcopters are capable of, take a look at this TED talk by Raffaello D’Andrea.