Something out of nothing
“ Why is there something rather than nothing?” This is the question which Harry Cliff poses in his Ted Talk entitled “Have we reached the end of physics?”
For the reader who is not familiar with Ted Talks if you have a smart phone or an iPad I highly recommend downloading the Ted Talk app. This app will connect the reader/listener to brief talks by scientists, theater notables, spiritual leaders, and many other individuals. The one thing that all of the presenters have in common is that they will invite one to think outside of their box of whatever topic is being discussed or presented. Since I have eclectic tastes and tend to get bored rather easily, I listen to a variety of these talks. Frequently I listen while I am working out at the gym. This morning I listened to a couple of Ted talk including the one by Mr. Cliff.
In his talk Mr. Cliff states:
On July 4, 2012, physicists at CERN announced to the world that they'd spotted a new fundamental particle being created at the violent collisions at the LHC: the Higgs boson.
He goes on to report that:
“But there is something deeply mysterious about the Higgs field. Relativity and quantum mechanics tell us that it has two natural settings, a bit like a light switch. It should either be off, so that it has a zero value everywhere in space, or it should be on so it has an absolutely enormous value. In both of these scenarios, atoms could not exist, and therefore all the other interesting stuff that we see around us in the universe would not exist. In reality, the Higgs field is just slightly on, not zero but 10,000 trillion times weaker than its fully on value, a bit like a light switch that's got stuck just before the off position. And this value is crucial. If it were a tiny bit different, then there would be no physical structure in the universe.
If any of them explained this weirdly fine-tuned value of the Higgs field, then we should see new particles being created at the LHC along with the Higgs boson. So far, though, we've not seen any sign of them.”
He also reminds is that:
“But in 1998, astronomers made the stunning discovery that the expansion of the universe is actually speeding up. The universe is getting bigger and bigger faster and faster driven by a mysterious repulsive force called dark energy.
We don't know what dark energy is, but the best idea is that it's the energy of empty space itself, the energy of the vacuum. Now, if you use good old quantum mechanics to work out how strong dark energy should be, you get an absolutely astonishing result. You find that dark energy should be 10 to the power of 120 times stronger than the value we observe from astronomy. That's one with 120 zeroes after it.
…
If one does a bit more research one finds that the current estimate is that dark energy makes of 74% of the universe(s), dark matter 22% and visible matter only 4%. One will also find that the dark energy is the energy of empty space, the vacuum itself.”
The reader may or may want to review the nature of matter – nucleus, protons, neutrons and electrons.
One may or may not also remind oneself of the fact that gravity is strong when things are closer and weaker when further apart.
Perhaps we may also need to remind ourselves of the nature of electromagnetic waves.
The word physics, accordingly to Wikipedia:
“Physics (from Ancient Greek: φυσική (ἐπιστήμη) phusikḗ (epistḗmē) "knowledge of nature", from φύσις phúsis "nature") is the natural science that involves the study of matter and its motion through space and time, along with related concepts such as energy and force.”
By this time if one’s interest and/or background is not in physics or a related field, one might be saying to oneself (or out loud), “Oy Vy” Poor Jim has gone over the edge this morning. What is or are the point(s)? The points are of course:
1. Have we reached the end of physics – the end of the study of matter or the end of the illusion of the study of matter?
2. How does our current understanding of string theory help us understand at least one of the possibilities for understanding the creation and the destruction/changing of the form of matter and the movement of dark energy through/in the vacuum/the dark space?
3. What is our minor role in the drama over time of all forms of energy?
4. What is the debt we owe such scientists as Dr. Cliff for reminding us of the price we pay for thinking that we know something about physics and our role in the universe? What is the price we pay for not honoring the delicate balance of what Dr. Cliff calls the Goldilocks universe?
5. What is the relative value of such scientists as Dr. Cliff, poets, musicians, spiritual leaders, military leaders, and religious extremists?
6. How do we get more of our children excited about becoming the future scientists who have the courage to ask the impossible question about matter, form, energy, expanding universes, and the interactional nature of the universes?
7. How is something created out of nothing?
8. What is our operational definition of something?
9. What is our operational definition of nothing?
Written on January 9, 2016
“ Why is there something rather than nothing?” This is the question which Harry Cliff poses in his Ted Talk entitled “Have we reached the end of physics?”
For the reader who is not familiar with Ted Talks if you have a smart phone or an iPad I highly recommend downloading the Ted Talk app. This app will connect the reader/listener to brief talks by scientists, theater notables, spiritual leaders, and many other individuals. The one thing that all of the presenters have in common is that they will invite one to think outside of their box of whatever topic is being discussed or presented. Since I have eclectic tastes and tend to get bored rather easily, I listen to a variety of these talks. Frequently I listen while I am working out at the gym. This morning I listened to a couple of Ted talk including the one by Mr. Cliff.
In his talk Mr. Cliff states:
On July 4, 2012, physicists at CERN announced to the world that they'd spotted a new fundamental particle being created at the violent collisions at the LHC: the Higgs boson.
He goes on to report that:
“But there is something deeply mysterious about the Higgs field. Relativity and quantum mechanics tell us that it has two natural settings, a bit like a light switch. It should either be off, so that it has a zero value everywhere in space, or it should be on so it has an absolutely enormous value. In both of these scenarios, atoms could not exist, and therefore all the other interesting stuff that we see around us in the universe would not exist. In reality, the Higgs field is just slightly on, not zero but 10,000 trillion times weaker than its fully on value, a bit like a light switch that's got stuck just before the off position. And this value is crucial. If it were a tiny bit different, then there would be no physical structure in the universe.
If any of them explained this weirdly fine-tuned value of the Higgs field, then we should see new particles being created at the LHC along with the Higgs boson. So far, though, we've not seen any sign of them.”
He also reminds is that:
“But in 1998, astronomers made the stunning discovery that the expansion of the universe is actually speeding up. The universe is getting bigger and bigger faster and faster driven by a mysterious repulsive force called dark energy.
We don't know what dark energy is, but the best idea is that it's the energy of empty space itself, the energy of the vacuum. Now, if you use good old quantum mechanics to work out how strong dark energy should be, you get an absolutely astonishing result. You find that dark energy should be 10 to the power of 120 times stronger than the value we observe from astronomy. That's one with 120 zeroes after it.
…
If one does a bit more research one finds that the current estimate is that dark energy makes of 74% of the universe(s), dark matter 22% and visible matter only 4%. One will also find that the dark energy is the energy of empty space, the vacuum itself.”
The reader may or may want to review the nature of matter – nucleus, protons, neutrons and electrons.
One may or may not also remind oneself of the fact that gravity is strong when things are closer and weaker when further apart.
Perhaps we may also need to remind ourselves of the nature of electromagnetic waves.
The word physics, accordingly to Wikipedia:
“Physics (from Ancient Greek: φυσική (ἐπιστήμη) phusikḗ (epistḗmē) "knowledge of nature", from φύσις phúsis "nature") is the natural science that involves the study of matter and its motion through space and time, along with related concepts such as energy and force.”
By this time if one’s interest and/or background is not in physics or a related field, one might be saying to oneself (or out loud), “Oy Vy” Poor Jim has gone over the edge this morning. What is or are the point(s)? The points are of course:
1. Have we reached the end of physics – the end of the study of matter or the end of the illusion of the study of matter?
2. How does our current understanding of string theory help us understand at least one of the possibilities for understanding the creation and the destruction/changing of the form of matter and the movement of dark energy through/in the vacuum/the dark space?
3. What is our minor role in the drama over time of all forms of energy?
4. What is the debt we owe such scientists as Dr. Cliff for reminding us of the price we pay for thinking that we know something about physics and our role in the universe? What is the price we pay for not honoring the delicate balance of what Dr. Cliff calls the Goldilocks universe?
5. What is the relative value of such scientists as Dr. Cliff, poets, musicians, spiritual leaders, military leaders, and religious extremists?
6. How do we get more of our children excited about becoming the future scientists who have the courage to ask the impossible question about matter, form, energy, expanding universes, and the interactional nature of the universes?
7. How is something created out of nothing?
8. What is our operational definition of something?
9. What is our operational definition of nothing?
Written on January 9, 2016
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