Chapter 5 - All That Is

Looking back -- looking forward

Chapter 5 - All That Is

Intelligent life stands in awe of the universe, yet the mother of all life cares for nothing!

                     

 

Gazing into the night sky, you are observing 'all states and phases of energy and matter'.  The very existence of the universe and our inborn curiosity lies at the beating heart of many human intellectual enterprises.  Those enterprises predictably encompass religion, philosophy and the sciences in their various forms. 

 

Each discipline holds its own particular fascination of course, but, in my humble opinion, only one discipline provides comprehensible, yet always challengeable answers, and that is: science.  The historical development of scientific thinking has been the focus of this little writing project.  Whilst we have only skipped over the centuries like a flat stone over water, the background research has provided an informative and enlightening experience for me personally.  However, I'd be the first to admit, I'm no nearer the 'ultimate answers' than I was at the beginning of the venture.  Nonetheless, I do now have a better grasp on the complexities of the issues that face scientists, astronomers, cosmologists and physicists in their various roles.

 

The men and women of science have battled a lack of technical aids throughout history; the technology it seems, always playing catch-up.  Scientists have also had to contend with another, even more insidious, trait: human incredulity.  Because something appeared beyond human reason or traditional cultural belief - often in spite of significant and substantial proof - both the scientific messenger and the message were repeatedly brutally maligned.  Oddly perhaps, the same level of incredulity has not been customarily applied to other disciplines, in spite of their patent lack of empirical evidence and often curious, superstitious claims.  One can only speculate what progress might have been made if human foibles hadn't retarded the natural pace of scientific development.

 

 

 

Our Western ideas of the classical four elements; Earth, Water, Air and Fire stem from Babylonian religious mythology.  Sometimes a fifth element - or quintessence - was added; named Aether (literally - light carrier).  The 'element', Aether, attempted to describe that which existed beyond the physical world.  Likewise, the first mention of the atom was suggested by the Ancient Greeks and is linked to one Leucippus �" 5^th c BCE - the founder of Atomism.  The Greek word: atomos - translated means uncuttable.  As many readers would be aware, the concept of the Aether (or Ether) was finally discredited by Einstein with his work on General and Special Relativity.

 

At great personal cost, Galileo Galilei, 1564-1642, finally exposed the myth of Ptolemaic model of our solar system, seriously challenging the entrenched religious dogma surrounding that belief. 

 

Following on, Sir Isaac Newton, 1642-1727, created a set of scientific principles that held sway for the next 300 years.  Newton, a Master of the Royal Mint circa 1699 until his death in 1727, in fact, wrote more papers on biblical interpretation and occult studies than on scientific topics.  For trivia buffs, it is claimed Isaac Newton suffered from Asperger's Syndrome.  

 

Newtonian science influenced many aspects of scientific experimentation for so many years, and great advancements predictably occurred.  The Classical States of Matter were modernized into the classifications of Solid, Liquid and Gas.  Each of those states of matter has their own story of scientific exploration and explicit identification.  Each also has its associated scientists who focused, often for a lifetime, on the investigation of each particular state and the transformations that occur between those states.

 

Today we are aware of many other exotic states, described as Non-Classical States, among them: Glass - Crystals - Liquid Crystal states - Copolymers - Superfluids - Bose-Einstein condensates - Fermionic condensates - Rydberg molecules - Quantum Hall states and the aptly named - Strange Matter. 

 

 

In addition to these states we now recognise the High Energy states, most commonly - Plasma, the ionized gas state now artificially produced, and regularly employed in much of today's technology.  Examples of natural occurrences of plasma are of course, lightning and stars, such as our own sun. 

 

Moving into the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) territory, states such as Quark-gluon plasma are shown to exist (baryonic material).  The temperature required to produce such material is up to 2�-10¹² K.  This type of matter is perhaps more commonly associated with quantum or particle physics and the conditions existing shortly after the period termed - The Big Bang.  Coincidentally, certain pundits suggest the term - The Big Bang - is inappropriate; I agree - it does seem misleading.  This - First Event - is often introduced with the codicil indicating - 'it wasn't actually an explosion as we know it - it is better described as a very rapid expansion'.  However, therein lays a topic for another day perhaps.

 

Einstein's theory of general relativity predicted the Very High Energy State, described as the gravitational singularity state.  Einstein postulated the environment for such a state may exist at the heart of a black hole.  With so many of Einstein's predictions constantly being upheld - as technology advances allowing scientists to run observable experiments, disproving, or more often, proving his theoretical speculations - this claim may yet prove to be another posthumous tribute to his genius.

 

There are now additional proposed states of matter; these include Degenerate Matter - apparently of great interest to astrophysicists because such high pressure conditions that create this type of matter are thought to exist within white dwarf and neutron stars.

 

Further proposed states include such exotic sounding names as - Supersolid - String-net Liquid and Superglass.  All of the aforementioned states are far removed from the Classical Ancient Greek classifications that satisfied human curiosity for so many years.  Whilst Einstein certainly didn't debunk Newtonian Science in the same way as Galileo debunked Ptolemy, he nevertheless lifted the lid of Pandora's Box much wider than even he perhaps appreciated.

Given the human characteristic of accepting the status quo without question, often for many years, one cannot imagine what spectacular breakthroughs are just over the horizon.  Will we ever know - all there is to know? 

 

I suspect, with the ever-increasing speed of technological advancement, science is only now on the threshold of as yet unimagined disclosures.  The mystery of Dark Matter and Dark Energy are surely high on that particular wish list. 

 

Ending this chapter with a parting thought; have you ever considered that the universe is simply the detritus of that mighty cosmic conflagration - The First Event?  Rather than a magnificent creation the universe is just: Ashes in a cold, cold, fireplace, swirling endlessly in a mighty celestial up-draught!

 

                      

 

Refs:

IEP. (2001, April 17). Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Retrieved October 9, 2011, from Leucippus 5th c BCE: http://www.iep.utm.edu/leucippu/

Jupiter Scientific. (1997). The Bible According to Einstein. New York: Jupiter Scientific Publishing Company.

Microsoft. (1998). Isaac Newton's Life. Retrieved October 8, 2011, from Isaac Newton Institute for Mathematical Sciences: http://www.newton.ac.uk/newtlife.html

Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. (2005, August 23). Ancient Atomism. Retrieved October 7, 2011, from Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/atomism-ancient/

Wikipedia. (2010). Classical Elements. Retrieved October 6, 2011, from Wikipedia the Free Encyclopedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classical_element

Wikipedia. (2011, September 28). Isaac Newton. Retrieved October 8, 2011, from Wikipedia the Free Encyclopedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaac_Newton

Wikipedia. (2011, October 5). State of Matter. Retrieved October 8, 2011, from Wikipedia the Free Encyclopedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_of_matter#Solid