Good God! A swift downturn is going around the globe, forcing companies and people to do the very types of things that can only accelerate and reinforce the downturn, and yet in some shady suburb near a campus, teams of scientists are after something that the press is calling a God particle (without understanding why it was originally called that).
It's a misnomer in some sense, because it would have really little practical (or divine) value, and we wouldn't be closer to a grand unified theory that would explain gravity. So I have no idea why the Higgs boson is a God particle, except finding it would apparently produce huge sighs of relief -- "Thank God, there's a probability we're still on the right track!" -- and that maybe there will still be funding.
And then the same scientists would be off to find the next, even-smaller particle.
Forgive me, but I'm a flat-earther when it comes to anything below quantum size. If you want to train a powerful microscope at a single pixel on your computer screen and try to tell me what it is made of based on the pulses of energy that periodically pass through it, I wish you well.
But seriously, doesn't it seem that the description of the subatomic world has degenerated into some kind of mad shaggy-dog story? We're bending backwards, inventing additional dimensions and parameters. It's like one of those offshoots of Hinduism with all sorts of minor godheads and planes. It used to be so simple and elegant when it was just Buddhism.
It seems there was more elegance in the early 20th century, when dew-eyed wunderkinder like Einstein were coming up with their opuses -- and warmongers were funding a race for a very concrete technology for world domination. Now it's just a pro forma grudge match to find something that doesn't even exist.
My useful tip for finding small particles:
IT'S WHEREVER THE %&/% WAVE FUNCTION SUGGESTS IT WILL MOST PROBABLY BE LOCATED!!!
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1 comment:
Agreed! Grains of sand, particles of dust and the occasional dog hair are about my speed. Too many of them, as it is. Small may be beautiful, but if I cannot look at it thru a regular microscope (like we used in high school biology), then forget it! :-)
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