How To Bluff Your Way In Cosmology
Okay, so this is a bit ambitious, I'm quite a fan of science and the natural world, so I have decided to go "all out" with a bluffers guide, but please remember I'm just an interested amateur. This will be a bit of a work in progress I think - I'll try to improve the explainations, and improve the style a couple of times, before leaving it. I'd love to hear from people with far more knowledge and experience than me on the subjects discussed here.
My goal with this post is to relate (in absolute layman’s terms) what it is possible to understand, without resorting to any technical language what-so-ever. (This also happens to be the only way I can understand things myself!)
So without any further delay...
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How To Bluff Your Way in Cosmology
1) Remember Your Place in The Universe
Cosmology, in general terms, is about the study of the Universe in its entirety; an understandable ordered Universe would correctly be called a Cosmos. As it happens "Universeology" doesn't sound good, but you can be happy in the knowledge that in fact they are the pretty much the same thing.
Humanity is the ultimate paradox. Big and small, significant and insignificant, intelligent and stupid, the pinnacle and the abyss. But of course it all depends on your viewpoint; when it comes to Cosmology we sit right in the middle. We live in a "Middle World".
When looking outwards, when compared to the planets, the galaxies, our own Milky Way, the rest of the Universe we are tiny, insignificant, unimportant, miniscule. If we look the other way however - inwards - compared to molecules, atoms, protons, neutrons, electrons, quarks, leptons, and many more fundamental particles we appear large, significant and incredibly important.
The truth is that we live in the middle of all things, not big, not small, just in the middle.
When you look around you see visible light in all its apparent glory, red, yellow, blue, green, but in fact you only see a tiny fraction of what’s there.
The electromagnetic spectrum is the complete range of wavelengths of electromagnetic radiation, from the longest wavelengths to the shortest: radio, microwave, infrared, visible, ultraviolet, x-ray, and gamma-ray radiation. The "visible" range is exactly that, the range that you and I can see, the range that contains the red, yellow, blue ans green that we see, and its tiny in comparison to the rest the unseen spectrum. You can't see or feel most of this spectrum, bit its there whizzing all around you - you are just unaware of it.
We live and operate in the middle of this spectrum with waves of other wavelength all around us. In many cases they can be very useful - such as for medical X-Rays or Radio signals - but our daily lives are lived in a tiny percentage of what is there.
So, when you hear someone say we live in an insignificant corner of an insignificant galaxy, you can be sure that they are correct. As it happens we also live in an insignificant part of that insignificant corner as well! Of course it may just be the case that this "small corner of a small corner" is the only place that sustains life. In which case it suddenly becomes a very significant place indeed!
The ultimate paradox is complete!
2) Get Things in Perspective: Look Big
Einstein, was a genius, there is no way around that, he is most well known for the equation: E=mc2 and also for the theory of Relativity, which specifically is two theories: “Special” and “General” Relativity. Special Relativity is a theory of the structure of spacetime, and General Relativity is a theory of Gravity.
Special Relativity explains how the speed of light is a constant, constant for all observers regardless of their location or movement. And General Relativity explains the motion of objects under the influence of gravity, why two objects in the absence drag, regardless of mass fall at the same rate – you’ve all heard of the feather and the hammer experiment? On the moon they fall to the ground at the same rate.
So these theories are the basis for all things that are big – the significant world “above us”. They explain why planets orbit their suns, why moons orbit their planets, why light bends in the presence of gravity, and why time, mass and energy are all inextricably linked. E=mc2 – mass, all things, you, me, the desk in front of you, everything we know are just exotic types of energy, nothing more nothing less.
Since Einstein’s time we have been able (with the help of instruments like the Hubble Space Telescope) to look to the very limits of what his theories predict. From the very start, to the very end of the known Universe - the application of these theories on the very grandest scale. The Standard Model of Cosmology has evolved from these theories and observations made since.
This model states that we can only see (and detect directly) 5% of what is out there in the world of BIG. Another 25% is dark matter, unobservable mass that can only be detected indirectly by studying the interactions of matter in terms of Einstein’s theory of General Relativity. The remaining 70% is Dark Energy a mysterious “antigravity” force that is little understood but seems to fit with the requirements of Relativity, what exactly it is is unknown but Dark Energy suffices for the time being as an explanation – it is the edge of understanding in terms of BIG!
3) Get Things in Perspective: Look Small
The advancement of technology has also allowed us to look the other way - to the small insignificant side of this universe. This is now called Quantum Mechanics, we are talking about the exact opposite of Relativity in terms of size, the smallest particles possibly known to man, potentially the smallest particles known to the universe.
All matter is made up of Atoms, atoms contain Protons, Neutrons and Electrons.
An atom has a number of Protons and Neutrons at its heart, the exact number define what element it is.
Each atom has a number of Electrons “orbiting” the proton and neutron. Electrons are sub-atomic particles that are responsible for electricity, they also bind one atom to another to create elements; H2O for example contains two Hydrogen atoms and one Oxygen atom. (Hydrogen has one proton at its core - Atomic Number 1 – and has one orbiting Electron - it is perhaps the most basic of all elements and is estimated to make up more than 90% of all atoms in the universe).
But this is buy no means the end of it, Quantum Mechanics defines what is beyond the atomic levels of understanding.
High tech laboratories like CERN in Geneva – the particle physics laboratory – smash protons and neutrons together to "break them open" and study their constituent parts.
This has reached a high level of understanding, for example Quarks are common particles that are the basic building block of protons and neutrons. There is a Standard Model of particle physics that includes a range of particles that are the constituent components of protons and neutrons: Positrons, Electron-neutrino, the Up quark and the Down Quark are all examples of these particles.
These exotic particles whose properties are little understood are some of the most basic building blocks of matter, some behave in bizarre ways, flittering in and out of existence or interacting with “twin” particles some distance away.
But the real goal of particle physics at the moment is to break open even these most primitive of particles. The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN - still under construction – (it is hopped) will "break open" these particles to reveal the elusive Higgs Boson. The most elusive of particles that it is predicted is what gives matter its mass.
It is suspected that the Higgs is literally the particle that ties everyday matter to spacetime. The Higgs Boson is sometimes called the "God Particle" for all its theoretical possibilities but persistent elusiveness. Directly detecting the Higgs Boson may just be the modern day equivalent of discovering fire or the wheel!
Particle Chart
4) Where Big and Small Combine
There are four known forces in the Universe, Gravity, Electromagnetism and the Strong and the Weak interactive forces.
Electromagnetism, the strong and the weak forces are what hold atoms and their component particles together, these all interact in complex ways. The strong force binds quarks together to form protons and neutrons, the weak force is responsible for radioactivity it is this that maintains the nuclear fusion reaction that fuels the Sun.
It is also because of the "Weak Nuclear Force" that splitting the atom causes radiation, such as in a nuclear bomb. You are effectively releasing the energy that is holding the atom together.
(The strong and weak forces are named this way in relation to each other - the weak force isn't weak as such - just less strong than the strong force.)
The fourth force: Gravity, is what holds us to the Earth, the Earth to the Sun and the Sun to the Milky Way.
Perhaps the most enduring question of modern science and understanding is how the three small forces interact with Gravity. Maybe CERN will uncover this with its LHC, maybe just maybe the Higgs Boson will hold the answers.
The theory that combines the worlds of BIG and SMALL, a unifying theory is often refered to as "The Theory of Everything". It continues to elude physicists.
Cosmology - the study of everything - is a quest for understanding; by looking to the very large and the very small we see that we stand in the middle. In many ways we are the knot that ties it all together; will we be able to combine the large with the small? Will we combine everything we know into a “theory of everything”?
Will we solve the greatest Paradox? And if so, is it just a coincidence that we - the human race – stand right in the middle?
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Wed., 08:05 AM
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