“Science is nothing more than the search to discover unity in the wild variety of nature- or more exactly, in the variety of our experiences.”
-Leon Lederman
The Big Bang Theory has been given a lot of flack in the media but in the scienctific community has a strong foothold, and a majority acceptance. This is because there is a lot of evidence supporting it, from observations made by Edwin Hubble in 1929 when he compared spectral lines of light from all over the sky, he noticed that they were all moving away from him, in every direction. Other evidence is in the form of reminiscent radiation that can still be detected. Also the universe has a very constant temperature, that is, distant parts are within fractions of a degree of each other, this means that they at one time had the same amount of energy and were incredibly close to each other.
GUTs is a collection of theories called the Grand Unification Theories, which attempt to unify both quantum chromodynamics (the variation found within quarks and leptons often refered to as their flavor or color) and the electroweak force. This window of unification is in the energy window of 10^15 GeV. The symmetry of the laws of nature are at a higher level. At this temperature there is only one particle and one force but an large amount of force carrying particle and gravity. There are many many variations on this theory, not particularly strong, but cannot be experimentally disproven so are still floating around the scientific community.
Another theory is SUSY, which stands for supersummetry. This theory unifies particles and force carriers. Everything has a supersymetrical partner but so far we haven’t seen them because they are super high energy and our particle accelerators cannot get their just yet. Susy theory would lead to a true quantum theory with no more holes!! First, those theoretical physicists just need to fix the holes.
Open vs. Closed Universe
An open universe is one that is continuously expand, growing colder, forever, this is caused by very little gravitational mass. An closed universe is where there is too much gravitational mass and the current expansion will reverse, resulting in a Big Crunch. In order to calculate the gravitational mass, you can count the stars, which has been done and says that it is an Open universe. But now it is thought that there is another type of matter, called Dark Matter, that adds mass to the universe. Lucky for us, theoretical physicists believe that the total mass puts our universe in a great position, a Flat Universe, which has enough mass to not expand too big, but not too much that it will “crunch”. We are essentially expanding, at a slowly decreasing rate.
What I really enjoyed about this book is quite frankly the background information on the founders of modern science. No, that’s just an attempt at me trying to be funny. In actuality the two things that caught my eye was the fact that there could be a unifying particle known as the God particle that links all of science together, and the other is the small insignificant debate of opened versus closed universes.
ReplyDeleteLet me touch briefly on the subject of this unifying particle, for one I think that we are getting way too far ahead of ourselves to say that this one little particle relates all of quantum mechanics and therefore adheres to the rules of classical science as well. As a social community and one that is advanced, to say that we have come close enough to finding the starting point is ridiculous. I believe that we do not have the technology required to observe these particles, we are trying to work towards that but not getting there. And I know that I may be bantered for this with a comment like, “ we have a particle accelerator that can almost recreate this phenomena.” Great but has it happened, no. I’m not a sceptic and hope that we can observe it but in reality if we were to actually observe this particle then we have uncovered the defining thing that links all of universe’s wonders together. I’m sure that the puzzle is not as simple as we make it seem and I see this as yet another step in relating all of our knowledge and a new theory will be developed.
The next point is more of a question. In the open versus closed universe which do any of you support? I have found ample evidence on both sides but I still have to put my money down on a closed universe. The reasons why are based off of attraction between masses and particles. If the universe is slowing down that means that gravitational forces will overcome the recent velocity and bring everything back in on a specific point.
dibs!
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ReplyDeleteOh Sammy Dear,
ReplyDeleteJust from reading your chapter one blog, I already want to read the book. I love the analogy of the soccer ball to particles. It’s so true-these particles are all around us, but because we can’t see, touch, or feel them, we often forget that they exist. Interestingly enough, the discovery of the atom was definitely revolutionary, but now, there are still so many things missing; so many things that are unexplainable. That is why we are awaiting the discovery of this new particle, “The God Particle”. From what I’ve heard, the discovery of this particle and the study of its existence should explain some of the perplexing ideas that scientists have yet to understand. I also like what was stated, “The beginning of the universe is just a theory, scientists have come up with.” This quotation immediately struck me when I began reading your blog. For some reason, it was though provoking. I automatically questioned it. My novel, The State of the Universe, discussed the Universe’s past and present states. It didn’t once mention that the beginning of the universe is just a theory, but this concept makes sense, and until we make these final discoveries, the beginning of the universe will simply remain a theory.
One thing that I noticed while reading chapter four was that there were many common names spoken about. These names were of people that were all great contributors to science. The most fascinating that I have found while reading our books and then reading peoples’ blogs is that these names occur so frequently. It’s almost as if we learn about these people and the advancements or the contributions that they made, and we just kind of think about or almost wonder if it’s all correct. I don’t know about everybody else, but when I see a familiar name or concept in an outside source, it always intrigues me because then I know that I can communicate and connect with the world because we share this knowledge.
Chapter six on accelerators was totally interesting! Up until reading it and talking to you about it a few weeks ago, I didn’t actually understand what a particle accelerator was. Now I understand. They use hydrogen atoms and they remove the electron leaving just a proton (the nucleus). They then aim the protons down the linac, which sends them down a series of radio frequency waves. Once it reaches the desired speed, it is sent down a tunnel to collide with targets of antimatter. The purpose of these experiments is to determine the amount of energy available after the collision. Also, new particles are often the result of these collisions. Therefore, these experiments have become very useful to the scientific community simply because it could lead to the discovery of new elementary particles.
And I don’t think it should be A-tom, it should be A-tonne of different particles. There are just too many different particles, which compose everything. How do we keep track of all of them, and how many more can there be?
The truth is, I still don’t know what the Big Bang Theory is. I hear so many people talk about it like it’s a lunchtime conversation topic, but I don’t actually know what it is. Even reading about these other theories, I don’t know much about any of these theories like the GUT or SUSY theories. But now that you’re blog has sparked my interest in them and given me a brief overview of what they pertain, I’m going to do some digging myself to find out more about these scientific theories. Just from your reading and from the small amounts of information I have heard in passing, it seems that the Big Bang Theory is the most popular and has the most supporting evidence.
ReplyDeleteThe whole idea of an open vs. a closed universe is quite fascinating. I didn’t know there was a distinction; I didn’t know that there were such things as open and closed universes. And apparently, just by counting the stars, we can determine whether or not it is an open or closed universe. It has been determined that we live in an open universe.
I truly enjoyed reading your blog. It was exciting and insightful. I think you’ve convinced me that I should read that I should read The God Particle. I like your author’s writing style and witty remarks about science. While you were reading the book, you always told me how much you liked it and how his novel was very well written. Gaging by the content in your blog, your book seems to deal with a lot of new and emerging ideas, and at the same time many dated scientific experiments. From what I have read, it seems like it would be a very good book to read. In comparison to many other scientific books, it seems to be lighter, not necessarily in content, but in tone, where the author tries to keep his reader’s attention while filling their head with some fairly complex and intricate ideas. Like I mentioned earlier in my comments, there are many things in physics and chemistry that I have absolutely no clue about, such as particle accelerators or theories, but this book gives introductions to all of them. I think it would benefit me greatly to read this novel considering the fact that I will be studying these subjects in my post-secondary adventures.
You’ve done a great job with your blog! I really enjoyed it, and hopefully I’ll get around to reading The God Particle.