"Visible light, we have learned, is not the sole illuminating energy of the universe, as prescientific commonsense decreed. It is instead an infinitesimal slither of electromanetic radiation, comprising of wavelengths of 400 to 700 nanometers (billionths of a meter), within a spectrum that ranges from gamma waves trillions of times shorter to radio waves trillions of times longer. Radiation over most of this span, in wildly varying amounts, continually rains down on our bodies. But without instruments we were oblivious to its existence."

Wilson, Edward O. (1994: 50)Consilience: The Unity of Knowledge. Random House, New York.