Seven Point Eight The First Chronicle - By Marie A. Harbon Page 0,3
if an apple were magnified to the size of the Earth, then the atoms in the Earth-sized apple would be approximately the size of the original apple.”
At this point, he picked up an actual apple that he liked to use as a prop.
“As we journeyed through the twentieth century in today’s lecture, it became clear that atoms are not, in fact, unbreakable”.
He threw the apple to an alert young man in the second row, who caught it in one hand. Perfection. Paul continued as he paced the stage.
“Peering inside the atom, we found that its solidity is an illusion. The nucleus within it compares to a fly in a cathedral, and that leaves us with an awful lot of empty space, over ninety percent actually. We’ve always seen this void as empty and matter as full, but now that we can smash apart atoms, freeing a host of new quantum particles, will we begin to peel away the bottom layers of our reality?”
He paused briefly, as if contemplating the question.
“Einstein attempted to draw together space, time, matter, gravitation, and electromagnetism into one unified theory but this eludes him, and his theory remains incomplete. Will we ever develop a universal understanding of the cosmos, and our place within it? I’d like to think so, yet the more we discover the more unpredictable the universe becomes.”
“This brought us to the world of quantum weirdness, where the universe exists as an infinite number of possibilities, having no precise location or being until something happens to lock one of those possibilities into place. This is known as Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle. In his double-slit experiment, a photon particle behaved as if it passed through both slits at the same time, but, when it was observed closely, it chose a definite slit. He concluded that when we observe something, we turn quantum possibilities into reality. Maybe it also means we can be in two places at once!”
Paul heard a murmur from the audience, along with a few subtle chuckles.
“I conclude this lecture with more questions. Where is quantum theory taking us? Will our reality be further shattered, our quantum experiences breaking the bottom of the proverbial pail? Will the world change beyond recognition because of this? What applications will we find for this new knowledge? And where, if any place whatsoever, is there room for God? Any questions?”
Silence greeted Paul’s ears. Most of the audience pondered the lecture, temporarily existing in their own universe, either parallel, quantum or classical. A flashbulb fired, capturing Paul and his audience for posterity, yet still no one dared ask a question. Most lectures were never short of those willing to attempt the opening of Pandora’s Box, to be oppositional or controversial, to challenge the contemporary notions of science.
Then, finally someone spoke up, a fairly unassuming man in his early twenties who appeared to be bamboozled by the lecture.
“You said that atoms are full of empty space. Explain to me why things look and feel solid.”
Okay, a good start.
“Well…think of a bicycle wheel,” Paul began. “The spokes represent solid matter, or to be more exact, the neutrons and electrons in the atom with space in between, right?” The unassuming man nodded, so Paul continued. “When the wheel spins fast, representing the vibration or jiggling of the atoms, the spokes blur and look solid. If you reach out and touch them, they repel your fingers. They feel so solid that you wouldn’t be able to pass your hand right through them. When the wheel stops, or vibration ceases, they look and feel solid no more.”
The man smiled, no longer as bamboozled.
“So, if the neutrons and electrons stopped jiggling about, we can walk through walls?”
“Theoretically!”
The audience laughed.
“But,” the man added, “What’s in the empty space?”
A tough one to answer, but it didn’t faze Paul.
“Physicists aren’t certain what it contains, if anything at all.”
“Isn’t it full of the ether?” the man countered.
“Science considers the ether to be an archaic concept, akin to hogwash. It originated with the Greeks and referred to a universal field of energy that connects everything, it was the air breathed by the Gods. Pythagoras and Aristotle saw it as the fifth element of creation, along with air, fire, water, and Earth. Many of the greatest minds in history, including Einstein, believed in the ether, saying it was necessary for the laws of physics to work.”
“Well, if so many great minds believed in it, why isn’t it an accepted part of science?” the man pointed out.