Journey to the Center of Matter
Matter
or mass is the “raw material” of the universe, of stars, planets, mountains,
atmosphere, everything is constituted of matter. Matter can exist in three
states: solid, liquid and gas. These states are interchangeable, that is, all
substances can change from one state to another, if the necessary conditions come
together – such as temperature, pressure, gravity etc. However, of all the
substances that we know, only water exists in nature in these three states.
Atom
is synonymous with indivisibility, because it was thought to be the simplest
element of matter. From galaxies, stars, comets and planets to minerals,
metals, plants, animals and humans, everything is composed of the same matter
and this matter is formed of atoms, which in turn are made up of protons,
neutrons and electrons.
Protons
and neutrons are bound together in the nucleus, surrounded by electrons that orbit
the nucleus in cloud-like waves at defined energy zones, they do not orbit like
the planets around the sun as once thought. Their orbiting or their behavior is
oftentimes very unpredictable.
Different
types of matter have different elemental constituents; so far 118 simple
elements have been discovered. The simplest element is hydrogen which is comprised of
one proton and one neutron, followed by helium with two neutrons, two protons and two
electrons. A carbon atom is made up of six neutrons, six protons and six
electrons. Heavy matter like iron, tin, and uranium contain many more neutrons,
protons and electrons.
After
the Big Bang, when the clock started ticking, space opened, matter expanded and
temperature began to drop. Conditions became exactly right for quarks and
electrons to be formed and very, very shortly after, a few millionths of a second later, quarks assembled to form protons and
neutrons, while electrons remained free. At a later time, neutrons and protons
themselves combined to form nuclei; as the universe continued to expand and
cool, electrons slowed down enough to be trapped to the nuclei thus atoms were
formed, which in turn led to the formation of molecules, galaxies, stars,
planets etc.
Looking at something closer to home, we
observe that a plant is made up of three main parts: the leaves, the trunk and
the roots. With the aid of a microscope, we see that these main parts are each
made up of cells, and each cell being composed of three simpler parts: a cell
membrane, cytoplasm and a nucleus. Analyzing the nucleus of the cell, we find
in it the genetic code, the DNA, of this very cell in the form of long strands
of molecules. These molecules are in turn made of atoms; each of these atoms is
composed of three particles: electrons that orbit around a nucleus that is
composed of protons and neutrons.
The
electrons, which revolve around the nucleus of the atom, have a negligible mass
compared to the protons and neutrons in the nucleus. Therefore they don’t have
an internal structure, that is, they are elemental particles that cannot be
further subdivided. The protons and neutrons, however, are not simple particles
as they were thought to be until very recently, but are made of quarks which as
of now six types have been observed.
These six types or flavours of quarks are: up, charm and top quarks, each carrying a positive charge of +2/3, and strange, down, and bottom quarks, each carrying a negative charge of -1/3. A proton is made up of two up and one down quarks, and the neutron two down and one up quarks. Only up and down quarks are seen naturally on Earth and are found in the atoms of normal matter, the other four have only been observed in particle accelerators.
In
order to study these components of matter, we need particle accelerators that are
kilometers in length, where particles usually protons travel at speeds close to
the speed of light, and equipment as large as a house to study their behaviour.
The
Dissection of an Atom
The
modern concept of the atom was formulated by John Dalton in the nineteenth
century. All matter is composed of atoms that are indivisible and
indestructible. Today we know that atoms are not indivisible but are made up of
other elements. An atom therefore is formed of a positively charged nucleus
surrounded by negatively charged electrons.
As was
mentioned earlier, the subatomic particles that form the nucleus are called
protons which are positively charged and neutrons which are neutral. Finally, protons
and neutrons are made from quarks. It is fascinating the fact that even after
the discovery that neutrons and protons are not elemental particles like the
electrons, the tridimensionality is not broken, because as we know, the number
of quarks that form both the proton and the neutron is 3.
The nucleus
of an atom occupies only 1/10,000 of its volume, and yet almost all of the mass
of an atom is concentrated in the nucleus. What this means is that the greater
part of an atom is actually empty space.
The Exception of Hydrogen
The Exception of Hydrogen
All atoms
with one exception consist of three types of particles: positively charged protons tightly bound to neutral neutrons by the strong nuclear force in
the nucleus with orbiting negatively charged electrons. Electrons are kept in orbit around the nucleus by the electromagnetic
force resulting from the attraction between charged particles. Electromagnetic
force is the second strongest force in the universe, second only to the strong
nuclear force between protons and neutrons inside the nucleus.
Hydrogen,
however, does not follow this rule because it is the simplest element known to
man and is formed by a single electron and a single proton held together by the
electromagnetic force of two different charged particles. Hydrogen is the most
abundant raw material in the entire universe, accounting for 75% of matter and
over 90% of all atoms that the universe contains.
Hydrogen is
the first element in the periodic table, and along with helium and lithium,
element two and three, respectively, were the earliest types of matter formed
at the time of the Big Bang. Hydrogen is a colorless and odorless gas, it does
not react with water, but burns in the presence of oxygen. Because it is a
simple atom without the strong nuclear force that the other atoms have, it combines
easily with other elements.
Because
hydrogen has no neutrons, this seems to defy our definition of the structure of
the atom as being composed of three subatomic particles: electrons, protons and
neutrons. However, we know now from the studies done in particle accelerators
that protons and neutrons are not elemental particles, but are each made up of
three quarks; if we define the atom by its simplest particles then hydrogen will
be included in our definition. In other words, an atom continues to be made up
of three types of subatomic particles: electrons, up quarks and down quarks.
The Dimensions of the Atom and its Components
- The protons are so tiny that 500,000 of them can fit on a headpin; but they are huge in comparison to the electrons. To put things into perspective, if the proton and the neutron were one centimeter in diameter, then the diameter of the electron would be less than that of a human hair, with the diameter of the entire atom being equivalent to 30 soccer fields.
- The electrons, therefore, do not contribute much to the total mass of an atom, but they are the most active part because they participate in bonding, that is, they get combined with other atoms.
- More than 99.9% of the volume of an atom is empty space; if the nucleus of an atom was the size of a basketball, the electrons would be several kilometers away from the nucleus.
- The immense force that keeps the protons and neutrons inside the nucleus of an atom is 100,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 times more powerful than gravity.
- Electrons orbit around the nucleus at a velocity of 2,200 kilometers per second, that is, in 18 seconds it would make a complete trip around the Earth, and yet this is less than 1% of the speed of light.
The logic behind the illogical quantum mechanics
Once upon the time there was a philosopher in
the public square of Athens who would answer with wisdom and ease the most
curious and difficult questions that the people posed. One day, among the
audience there was a shepherd who had come down from the mountains with the
intention of exposing and shaming the wise man in public. With a swift movement
of his hand, he catches a fly and holding out his closed hand to the sage, he
asked: “In this closed hand I have a fly, can you tell me, is it alive or is it
dead?”
The wise man said to himself as he pondered
over the question: “If I say that it is alive he can squeeze his fist, killing
it, and show me that it is dead; if on the other hand, I say that it is dead,
he opens his hand and everyone will see that the fly escape.” After some
reflection and facing the anxiously awaiting public, he answered: “The life and
the death of the fly that you have in your closed hand is as you choose it to
be; if you want it to live then it is alive, if you want it to die, then it is
dead.”
This tale reminds me of the paradox of Schrodinger’s cat where the cat is in a state of quantum superposition, in which it is at the same time both alive and dead. It is true that the cat cannot be both alive and dead, because the logic of quantum mechanics does not apply to large objects, but it does illustrate very well what happens in the world of subatomic particles, where determinism and certainty vanish, and the observed is at the mercy of the observer.
Quantum
mechanics makes us turn around, modify our paradigms, and go against the logic
that has governed science and our lives. It pulverizes the frontiers that
seemed to us to be insurmountable previously, and ends with dualism that
opposes realities with concepts that are very different, and even opposite, to
what we are used to think, such as matter/energy, tangible/intangible, visible/invisible,
matter/spiritual, inert/alive, static/dynamic, predictable/unpredictable,
science/philosophy.
Matter/Energy – The heart of the matter is as
intangible as energy; the heart of the matter, or the world of atoms and
subatomic particles, is in fact energy.
Atoms can
be matter, as we try to weigh and measure them; but the particles that they are
composed of have electric charges and they move, that is, they exhibit the
properties of energy. We can conclude that they are matter in their essence – describable,
qualifiable and quantifiable – but they are energy in their existence, because
they exhibit a voltaic power, react and create waves.
Matter is energy in
potentiality, energy is matter in potentiality. Combustion transforms matter
into energy: it is what happens at the centre of the sun, where hydrogen atoms
fuse, creating helium atoms and energy. It is what happens in our body where by
slow combustion, food is transformed into energy that moves our heart and our
limbs, and warms us, giving us a constant temperature. Lacking this matter,
immediately our temperature lowers, and little by little we are deprived of
movement; the body then feeds on itself, becoming emaciated and falls into a
coma and dies.
Photosynthesis does the
reverse with the solar energy: it transforms energy into matter because with
the sun, plants grow, and participate in the food chain that feeds animal life.
Plant life and animal life feed man, but the energy source for all this is the
sun which transforms energy into matter. In other words, we are made of sun.
Visible and solid matter is
made from invisible elements, and the closer we get to the center of the
matter, the less matter (mass), and the more empty space, we find, so that
matter seems to be reduced to small vibrating strands of energy. Subatomic
particles are in fact manifestations of energy. Therefore, what seemed so
visible and solid is now reduced to electromagnetic waves. In so being, we can
conclude that our bodies and everything that exists materially can be regarded
as vibrating energy.
Matter in itself does not
exist because it is only the storehouse of energy, it is nothing but condensed,
accumulated energy. For example, plants by means of photosynthesis, convert
radiant energy of the sun into chemical energy that is stored in organic
molecules, as if a plant was a battery, a power storage.
Matter/Spirit – Materialism has no rationale for being, because
matter is formed by invisible elements, almost spiritual and certainly we
cannot understand matter without knowing its soul. The atom is the soul of the
matter, and therefore not only human beings have soul, matter also has it.
The soul of matter is as invisible as ours.
Inert/Alive – It is no longer clear that there
is life only in organic matter; there is no longer such a big difference
between organic and inorganic, or inert and dead, matter. Subatomic particles
reveal to us that life does not exist only at the level of the cell, but also
at the subatomic quark level. This, of course, relates to a different form of
life that we are used to.
Visible/Invisible
- If
quantum mechanics hasn’t profoundly shocked you, you haven’t understood it yet.
Everything we call real is made of things that cannot be regarded as real. Niels
Bohr
The
boundary between what is visible and invisible is also erased in matter. The space
taken up by the nucleus and the electrons of an atom is less than 1% of its
size, the remaining 99% or more is empty space between the nucleus and the
electrons. As stated earlier, putting things into perspective at a macroscopic
level, if the nucleus of an atom was the size of a soccer ball, then the
electrons would be several kilometers away from it.
Static/Dynamic – The matter that makes up objects
appears to be static, that is motionless, but this is in fact an illusion: in
reality at the microscopic level, everything moves. As we have said earlier,
electrons orbit around the nucleus of an atom at a speed of 2,200 kilometers
per second. This means that matter is not static as it seems, but rather
dynamic.
In quantum
mechanics everything is an illusion: visible matter that seems to be static is
composed of invisible elements that in reality are in motion, and it is
apparently very different from energy, but is in fact a form of energy.
Quantum Mechanics Proves the Power of Faith
Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and
said, “Why could we not cast it out?” He said to them, “Because of your little
faith. For truly I tell you, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you
will say to this mountain, “Move from here to there”, and it will move; and
nothing will be impossible for you.” (Matthew 17:19-20)
In the
deterministic classical mechanics, that is, in knowing the initial position and the
momentum (mass and velocity) of all the particles belonging to a system, we can
calculate their interactions and predict how they will behave.
This does
not happen in quantum mechanics; the Heisenberg uncertainty principle states
that it is impossible to know at the same
time the exact position an electron occupies in the electron cloud around
an atom and the velocity that it orbits around the nucleus; the more we know of
its velocity, the less we know of its position and vice versa.
According
to Niels Bohr, when a subatomic particle is measured, the act of measuring compels
the particle to renounce all the possible places it could be found and (the uncertainty
principle) selects the location where we can find it; it the very act of measuring
that forces the particle to make that choice.
Unlike
Einstein, Bohr accepted the fact that the nature of reality was inherently
confusing; Einstein preferred to believe in the certainty of things in
themselves at all times, and not only when they are measured or observed. Einstein
came to say that “I like to think the moon is there even if I am not looking at
it.”
In his
disagreement with the fundamental concept of quantum mechanics and the
Heisenberg uncertainty principle, Einstein was also quoted to say, “Quantum
theory yields much, but it hardly brings us close to the Old One’s secrets. I,
in any case, am convinced He does not play dice with the universe.” The Old One
and He were Einstein’s reference to God. To which Bohr impassively responded with, “Stop telling God what to do with his dice.”
"I regard consciousness as
fundamental. I regard matter as derivative from consciousness. We cannot get
behind consciousness. Everything that we talk about, everything that we regard
as existing, postulates consciousness." Max Planck (1858-1947) 1918 Nobel
Prize in Physics, founder of Quantum Theory.
Based on
these ideas, we can conclude that our thoughts, that our beliefs create
reality, the reality that we want to create. As the proverb says, “Where
there is a will there is a way”. It is the power of mind over matter.
What we
hope will happen can truly happen. This is why it is now popular in all aspects
of life to affirm that we should have positive thinking and avoid negative
declarations such as “I will never get a good job”, “I will never meet my ideal
partner”, or “I will never get well”. These thoughts or negative prophecies can
in one way or another come true. As another proverb says, “That which a man
spits against heaven, shall fall back on his face.”
Let us try
to change our thinking into positive thinking because in some magical way, they
can modify the behaviour of the subatomic particles that make up our beings making
our dreams come true.
Masaru
Emoto believed that emotions can affect inanimate matter. He subjected water to
different words, positive and negative, such as declarations of love and
threats to life, compliments and insults, photographs, music, prayers. He then
froze this water and according to him the water that had been exposed to
positive things formed beautiful symmetrical crystals while the one exposed to
negative experiences crystallized in a way that was disorderly and ugly.
If in the
subatomic world the observed obey the observer, then would it not be better to
create medicines that work at this level rather than at the cellular and
chemical level?
The stream of human knowledge is heading
towards a non-mechanical reality. The universe begins to look more like a great
thought than a great machine. Mind no longer appears to be an accidental
intruder into the realm of matter. We are beginning to suspect that we ought
rather to hail it as the creator and governor of this realm. Sir
James Jeans, physicist
Fr. Jorge Amaro, IMC
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