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Superheroes are powered by smart atoms! the Background Energy Mass theory in detail |
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Most people think of atoms as simple balls, or (if they were paying attention at school) as a few balls lumped together: But the truth is far more amazing! Simplified atom: |
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Real atom: (still highly simplified) |
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Atoms are really collections of protons, neutrons, electrons and occasional more exotic particles. These in turn are made of quarks, gluons, and goodness knows what. These all exist in a state of quantum flux, in every possible state and in every position at the same time, known as quantum uncertainty. That's why the picture is full of particles when most of the time it is empty space. (Actually if you scaled them up, there is far more space between these particles than between the planets and stars in the sky! But I digress.) In real life, exotic particles and forces appearing and disappearing faster than you can say "excelsior." Actually, a lot faster than that. Believe me, these things are really, REALLY complicated. But don't worry, we can usually treat them as being simple balls. Why? Because from a human scale, we only care about their fixed mass, fixed charge, certain predictable energy states, and so on. The forces between atoms In the same way, the forces between atoms are really, REALLY complicated. It's just lucky for us that they usually result in constant and predictable effects. At least at the human scale, anyway. Simplified forces between atoms: |
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Real forces between atoms: (still highly simplified) |
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What if different internal states had the same results? In this vast multiverse, anything is possible. What if, in some alternate reality, there were atoms with totally different inner workings, but they resulted in the same mass, same charge, etc? There must be a trillion ways to get the same results (from our human point of view). At the quantum scale all of this is basically random, so it is pretty much certain that some atoms have weird internal structures but look the same from the outside. Given that there must be billions of internal configurations that give the same outside result, some of these must have interesting or useful features. Like they can create molecules that are chemically the same as ordinary molecules, but a lot stronger, or bigger, or different in some other way. Stable states The reason the universe has lasted as long as it has (assuming that time exists, but that is another topic), is the normal, boring states of matter are very stable. If matter kept changing between different states everything might fall apart, or blow up or something. But among all the infinite possibilities there must be other states that are also stable. Atoms that behave almost the same chemically, but have these very weird properties, and do not blow up. Chain reactions Again, given that infinite possibilities really means infinite, there must be some way to change between two states - normal atom and super atom. And there must be a chain reaction somewhere, some way that one atom can change all the atoms around it, and later they can change back again. Controlling it by thought or by flicking a switch Finally, given the infinite yada yada yada, it must be possible in some reality to control this chain reaction in the same way that humans can control nuclear power stations. That is, we decide to raise those control rods, that desire triggers a movement in our arms, we flick the switch, the control rods are raised, and magical things start to happen at a subatomic level. So here we have the basics of a superhero: some or all the atoms of the body (or some high technology device) can be changed to have some useful extra power. And this is done simply by thinking or flicking a switch. So this leaves two questions: 1. It might be possible somewhere in a distant corner of the infinite universes, but why here? Why in this universe in this time and place? Seems a bit unlikely, don't you think? 2. What changes, exactly? What changes in an atom to make the owner super strong, super fast, have telekinetic powers, etc.? Sounds to complicated, doesn't it? Well it isn't. Prepare to be astounded. Proof that it must happen here and now What I am about to describe might sound highly unlikely, but it only needs to be discovered or happen by accident once. That fulfills Occam's razor. Then it will be copied, according to the principles of evolution and survival. In other words, it is proven by the two most important principles in all of science and philosophy. Yes, proven. Stop nit picking. Occam's razor is the most important principle in all of science and philosophy. If you don't know what it is, just Google it. Basically, it says the simplest explanation is the best one. The principle I am describing only needs to be discovered once. Just once. That's all. It is very simple. The laws of probability are not broken (OK, maybe bent just a tiny bit, but not so as you'd notice.) After that, the second principle, evolution, does the rest. The second most important principle is evolution. Or if you don't believe in evolution, call it survival. Or adapting to chaos. Or as Jeff Goldblum said in Jurassic Park, "life will find a way!" We see this in the time-honored principles of stealing other people's ideas. We also see it in the animal kingdom, it's called not getting killed. If one person has some great advantage (like super powers), pretty soon other people will have them, or they will be dead. What about all the superheroes who "accidentally" gain powers? That is easy to explain. Our cells have evolved to survive, just as we have. Our cells didn't get where they are today by not recognizing an opportunity when they see it. Just as an animal craves food and sex, our cells crave anything that makes them more powerful. As soon as the right kind of radiation or genetic data appears, our cells adapt to make the best use of it, just like a sex-starved teenage boy instinctively adapts his behavior to suit the needs of the hot girl. Animals want sex and cells want super powers. They have evolved to adapt very quickly when an opportunity arises. Trust me on this one. "Get to the point: what exactly do those atoms do?" I will keep this simple, since most people don't like science. If you are a science professor then I am sure that you will see the persuasive elegance of my argument and can fill in the details yourself. If you are a science professor and cannot see the elegance of this, then plainly you are not as smart as you think and I would keep quiet if I were you. Right, let's begin. Science is based on physics. (Stop complaining, you biologists and chemists, it just is. Get used to it.) And physics is based on fundamental properties like... Energy Temperature Voltage Time Distance Frequency Charge Mass etc. Notice anything? All these properties except one are constantly changing in normal atoms. Atoms are always changing their potential and kinetic energy, they often lose and gain electrons (which carry charge), usually through radiation which changes frequency in the process, they change their position and speed and thus the temperature of the substance, the clock of time ticks on, and so on. Every property is changing... except one. Mass! In normal circumstances, the mass of an atom never changes! (Except in very insignificant ways - sure, an atom can lose or gain an electron, but an electron's mass is insignificant compared to its position, its energy, its charge, and so on.) Doesn't that sound odd? Einstein knew that mass was very, very odd. He made it the basis of his theory of relativity. For the past hundred years, the most fundamental problem in all science has been to reconcile the two most important theories in physics, the two theories that explain everything, yet cannot yet be made to agree: relativity (which deals with very big things) and quantum theory (which deals with very small things). This is the biggest question of all! I have a very modest theory that would explain everything - relativity, quantum theory, superheroes, the lot. What if (gasp) mass could change like everything else? Actually, Einstein said it could! His most famous breakthrough was E= mc2 ...which shows how mass can transform into energy! It is the Holy Grail of science to find a way to make this happen simply and efficiently, without blowing everybody up or needing deadly reactors that leave a million years of radioactive waste. What would happen if we could do it safely and simply on a human scale, creating and destroying mass just as we wish, storing the energy in all kinds of convenient forms? Imagine... imagine that some mad scientist in her lab stumbled across the secret. Or imagine that some intrepid explorers were accidentally bombarded with cosmic rays and found that by some freak accident their atoms had gained the ability to convert between mass and energy in really useful ways. Just imagine... But before we kick our chairs back and gaze into space (stop daydreaming!) it's time to ask, what exactly are we tapping into? Summary So we see that superhero atoms grab background energy (sometimes as mass) in order to make themselves bigger or stronger, or expel energy. All the usual superhero stuff in fact. How do the clever molecules learn how to do that? They don’t have little brains, but they are complicated enough that they could learn habits, just as a tiny insect can learn stuff even though it has a brain the size of, er, well the size of an insect’s brain actually. Training molecules is just a numbers game. It’s a matter of trial and error and evolution among trillions of atoms in trillions in each of trillions of living organisms until one gets it right by sheer luck. The ones that didn’t get it right are all dead, the ones that got it right (by sheer luck) were able to beat up everyone else and ensure the survival of their super genes. Isn’t molecular biology wonderful? And now... the Power Cosmic! This theory is called the "Background Energy Mass" theory, so it's time to talk background energy and mass! BIG energy! BIG, BIG mass! And wormholes and teleporting and other good stuff. Time for some quotes: "All fledgling theories of quantum gravity also make a more general and even weirder prediction: the structure of space and time is very different from the gentle curves predicted by general relativity. The American physicist John Wheeler realized in the 1950s that if you look at things on a scale of about 10-35 meters, quantum fluctuations become powerful enough to play tricks with the geometry of the Universe. Space and time break down into "fuzziness" or "foaminess". A spaceship that size could find itself negotiating virtual black holes, or getting sucked into one wormhole after another and tossed back and forth in time and space." - Michael Brooks, "Quantum foam" - New Scientist 19 June 1999 So it's weird and can be teleported to different places if you know how to do it. But how much energy can you get? "Most people assume that the vacuum is empty. But according to quantum electrodynamics, the theory that describes the behavior of the Universe at the very small scale, nothing could be further from the truth. The vacuum is actually seething with electromagnetic energy called zero-point energy and it's this that Maclay hopes to tap. The "zero" in zero-point refers to the fact that if you were to cool the Universe to absolute zero, its lowest possible energy state, some energy would remain. Actually, rather a lot of energy. Physicists disagree over just how much, but Maclay has calculated that a region of the vacuum the size of a proton could contain as much energy as all the matter in the entire Universe." - New Scientist, Energy unlimited |
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