Quantum Physics
A disclaimer: I
am a dilettante. I do not have the math skills to be really good at
this, and I’ve only had a couple of ideas anyway.
For instance, our astronomers have a better
window than I do how fast our planet is moving through space, and Lewis
Caroll’s White Queen had it figured out long before I did.
That is, if we timed our LHC activity to
the vector forces of the planet’s rotation about its axis, its orbit around the
sun, the sun’s path around the galaxy and the galaxy’s relative speed through
the universe, any given hadron should already be moving at some quantifiable
higher-than-at-rest velocity relative to absolute rest.
True, it’s the same speed as everything
on the planet, but the planet itself isn’t at rest. Or, as the White Queen
herself said, it takes a lot of energy to remain in exactly the same place. I
see the planet as a hood ornament on an already fast-moving vehicle. If that
hood ornament were to fire a bullet, her bullet starts out with a velocity
greater than absolute rest.
This view of the universe allows for a
bit of boring teleportation, if we could harness it. If an object were enclosed
in a field of absolute rest, for instance, relative to the rest of the planet,
it would be seen by observers exterior to that statis field to move away from
the surface at the speed of the planet’s motion through space, and lord knows
what that field would encounter next.
In a year, for example, the movement of the
sun through the universe suggests that the Earth can’t return to that point in
space. Mars might encounter it eventually, if the absolute-rest statis field
were aimed correctly. But this means of transportation – or, rather, employing
the relative movement of bodies in space against any given fixed point in space
– already violates laws of inertia, gravity and escape velocity (and not to
mention what precisely a “statis field” is). But the energy we’d need to invest
in “staying in one place” so as to move through the universe at galactic speeds
might ultimately be less than what an actual spaceship might require.
Offhand, that doesn’t seem likely. 
Then there’s the concept of quanta
themselves. My first thought was for any object k, k is extended through time
as well as the three dimensions of space (or all theoretically extended
dimensions beyond them).
It touches on the concept of permanence,
that every scrap of matter in the universe has been around since the Big Bang.
Which seems equally necessary and unlikely, given the complex nature of the
current atomic model and our understanding of the background microwave
radiation in the universe.
Also, the presence of naturally occurring
radioactive elements on the planet, given that our last direct contact of any
significance with a supernova was approximately 4.5 billion years ago, so the
concept of a half-life suggests that there was a lot more uranium a while ago
than there is now. Lord knows how there’s any left now in the first place,
actually, but there is, so …
See, I recognize that there’s no actual math on any of
that, and I am notoriously bad with complex mathematical expressions. My random
thoughts about the universe don’t come up to the elegance of Brian Greene or
the complexity of Stephen Hawking but I’m such a fan and if I were to think of
even half the things they think of my head would explode.
I’m sure we’ll figure it all out. Not me,
of course, but some of us are pretty bright. Fortunately, the sun isn’t
planning to gulp the planet for a few billion years so if we can dodge the
shooting gallery we’re in for awhile longer, we might manage to find a younger
planet to colonize.
And, if we figure out how to make a
statis field, maybe we can let it come to us. 
January 2011
I had occasion to think again today about
the nature of atoms. It’s so odd that our current model seems so sketchy but
the predictions we can make from it allows us to recharge batteries, film X-rays
and do MRIs and these are all functional. Our math has been good enough to
navigate space, and we make smartphones that put the entire Internet in our
pocket.
Yet we could power the nation on a
10-acre solar array in the desert but we don’t. We figure on reducing cooling
costs by painting roofs white and people harrumph and object. It’s just physics
and people react like someone’s stealing their birthday. Comments I’ve encountered
regarding the electric car are preliterate.
Here’s why I’m curious about the current
model. It seems to account for everything we need it to. It allows for very
useful predictions that keep computers operating and geosynchronous satellites
operational. We’ve figured out nuclear fusion and nuclear fission and we can
manage particle acceleration.
But there seems to be so much it can’t
account for. We’re estimating some 96 percent of the matter and energy in the
known universe is unaccounted for – a mysterious inflationary energy pulling us
apart intergalactically while dark matter keeps the galaxies themselves intact.
So … we’ve managed some detailed
awareness at the subatomic level and we’re learning more all the time, but it seemingly
hasn’t given us as much insight at the scale of the vast.
This confuses me. But then … I’m easily
confused.