We are all phantoms (woven out of the ether)
It was once said, "We are all phantoms," when referring to the tiny amount of us that is actually solid. I believe this website puts it best, and even gives us a visual for the idea. So much of us, and our world, is nothing but empty space. If the forces that held atoms and molecules apart were to disappear for a second, we could all walk straight through walls, or more likely fallthrough the earth and not once experience a collision between the protons, electrons, and neutrons that make us up. That brings me to the point for today's post.
At the Perimeter Institute in Ontario, a team of researchers have come up with a theory of the makeup of the universe. Their idea is that the fundamental particles that make up matter are like folds in time-space. According to quantum physics, at the sub-atomic level the world is extremely chaotic and particles and their constituent sub-particles jump in and out of existence randomly. However they can be joined together in such a way that their liklihood of jumping out of existence is greatly decreased, resulting in particles that seem to be more or less permanent. For instance, look at a proton. It's made of two up quarks and a down quark, which by themselves would flit in and out of reality like the lights of fireflies. When they come together to form a proton, they're stable enough that we haven't seen one decay even after 30 years so far. The idea that this theory expounds is that these quarks are little folds in the fabric of the universe that come together to form braids. If I twisted a piece of rope and threw it through the air, it probably wouldn't be folded by the time it hit the ground, but if I braided it there's a chance it would stay that way for a while.
The two things that I specifically want to point out in this theory are as follows:
1) They've been able to derive a working theory of gravitation from it using nothing but the theory of relativity, a lot of coffee, and plenty of math. That's a big feat for any physical theory.
2) It finally gives a functional definition to space. The illusion of space is a by product of how the fundamental particles of the universe come together as a whole. The braids and folds that they make connect the universe like an enormous afghan. Everything is networked together, and while their connection is immediate, the way in which the fabric of the world is folded between any two points creates what we understand as distance. Neato, huh?
At the Perimeter Institute in Ontario, a team of researchers have come up with a theory of the makeup of the universe. Their idea is that the fundamental particles that make up matter are like folds in time-space. According to quantum physics, at the sub-atomic level the world is extremely chaotic and particles and their constituent sub-particles jump in and out of existence randomly. However they can be joined together in such a way that their liklihood of jumping out of existence is greatly decreased, resulting in particles that seem to be more or less permanent. For instance, look at a proton. It's made of two up quarks and a down quark, which by themselves would flit in and out of reality like the lights of fireflies. When they come together to form a proton, they're stable enough that we haven't seen one decay even after 30 years so far. The idea that this theory expounds is that these quarks are little folds in the fabric of the universe that come together to form braids. If I twisted a piece of rope and threw it through the air, it probably wouldn't be folded by the time it hit the ground, but if I braided it there's a chance it would stay that way for a while.
The two things that I specifically want to point out in this theory are as follows:
1) They've been able to derive a working theory of gravitation from it using nothing but the theory of relativity, a lot of coffee, and plenty of math. That's a big feat for any physical theory.
2) It finally gives a functional definition to space. The illusion of space is a by product of how the fundamental particles of the universe come together as a whole. The braids and folds that they make connect the universe like an enormous afghan. Everything is networked together, and while their connection is immediate, the way in which the fabric of the world is folded between any two points creates what we understand as distance. Neato, huh?
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