Science and Science Fiction

Often in human literature, there are connections with science and technology, some of that day and some which does not exist. Most people know of the classic examples of futuristic sci-fi, things like Star Wars, Star Trek, and pretty much any super hero movie. They can be very entertaining to watch and to get caught up in the stories of a different world, but it can be interesting to examine the actual technologies within the movies themselves and look at the real world possibilities.

We've talked before about Star Wars and the most recognizable technology in the Saga, the lightsaber. They are working on a state of matter similar to the lightsaber, which frankly I think is just awesome. The lightsaber wouldn't have much of an impact on your daily life besides the fact of how ridiculously cool it would be to have one. Another technology from Star wars would be the many different types of speeders and star ships. In the world of space travel today, some companies such as SpaceX are planning for commercial space travel, which means you could pay to go to space just for the experience. Obviously this isn't the same as a star fighter battle in space around the forrest moon of Endor, but its a step in the right direction. Some of these ships in Star Wars also have the ability to travel through hyperspace at light speed, which we know through the laws of physics is impossible. So if you were hoping to be able to activate the hyperdrive on the Millennium Falcon at some point, I wouldn't could on it.

In Star Trek, the Enterprise has a similar function as light speed, called warp speed. Warp speed is said in the various Star Trek series to be achieved when matter is mixed with antimatter creating plasma which when circulated through the warp drive creates a bubble around the ship which allows it to travel at speeds greater than light. Again, as far of we know the cosmic speed limit of light cannot be broken, but the technology described by Star Trek is very interesting. The matter/antimatter interactions which they describe sound very cool, I have no idea if they are possible or not, but the theory is very intriguing. The other thing about Star Trek are the interactions with new forms of life all over the galaxy, and how these interactions go. This goes along somewhat with my last post about the possibilities of life in our universe. If you haven't seen Star Trek I encourage you to try an episode or 2 from any of the different series' or one of the movies, they can be very intriguing.

Finally, obviously most super heros couldn't actually exist, but things Batman of Ironman, where there are mostly just inventions, are the coolest to me. They show how creative people can be, and even though it is all fiction, it shows the possibility of where we might get. Obviously I don't literally mean the possibility of the Dark Knight guarding our streets, but all of science fiction is meant to show the possibility of where science may take us.

I think its important to keep this inventive, creative, wondrous side of science in the forefront of the minds of those pursuing it. When studying science, its easy to see things as static, and always exactly how they are taught. But the aim of science is new ideas, new innovations, and new technologies from the knowledge we have attained. To do this we need to keep our minds open to new ideas, no matter how far out there they are. We have to remember there was a time it was considered blasphemous to say the world was round. Ideas lead to discovery, no matter where the idea comes from. You never know what idea will lead to the next break through.

Living in the Cosmos

On Earth, all of our home, there are many different types of life. From us, humans, to bacteria to trees to fungi, life is all around us. The interesting thing about life on earth is that it all comes from a similar beginning. All life on Earth that we know of is a carbon based life form, or organic. According to evolution, all life today would have started from a single celled organism, millions of years ago, which through genetic mutations eventually changed into all the organisms around us today, including you and I.

This evolution of life here on Earth has inspired a search for life on other planets around the galaxy. You may have heard of planets which fall in the so called "Goldilocks Zone". This means the planet is the perfect distance away in its orbit from its star that the temperature and conditions would be similar to those of Earth, and could theoretically harbour life similar to that of our own planet. Most of the search for life in this field of astrobiology is focused on the search of carbon based life, and most of what you hear about in the news about the possibility for life in the universe will be something about carbon based life specifically. 

This makes sense why it happens, we are curious about other life like us, and the possibility of other humans and intelligent life with whom we could communicate. It is a logical place to start, since the only life we know of is carbon based, why shouldn't we look for other life like it. To me, this point of view is understandable, but somewhat closed minded. 

We only know of one type of life, life like us. So as far as we know this is all that exists. But what is to say there isn't life of many different kinds, most of which is probably nothing like us. Take a minute and try to think about how big the universe is, how immensely large it really is. Think about the possibility of it being infinite, and truly go on forever. Never ending. Its a tough thing to do because our brains aren't suited to think of such things, but still give it a chance. Now think of the possibilities of life within this infinite universe. If the universe is truly infinite, it never reaches its end so anything you could ever think of would have to exist somewhere in the universe, because everything is less than infinity. This is a tough concept to grasp but bear with me. 

If you're thinking of every possibility in infinity, there are probably a couple types of life that don't exist here. Not just different species, but totally different types of life. They could have a totally different elemental structure, they could be larger than our entire planet, there really are and endless number of possibilities of what really could be like. This isn't the easiest thing, but I really encourage you to think about what might be out there. It can be cool to see what your brain can come up with, and thinking about if the universe is infinite and what you think up may actually exist is very exciting. 

There is an important difference here to make between thinking the universe is infinite and what it actually is. Right now, we know generally how old we think the universe is, at least how far we can see so a general sense of scale, and other general ideas about the immensity of the cosmos, but we really can't know. The universe is just too big to see the end of it, and possibly we never will. So when I say the life form you think about could exist at some point, it could very well exist but we may never know if it does or doesn't. Thinking in terms of infinity can be powerful, but I caution at trusting its conclusions, they are all only possibilities.

Particles of Life - Part 3

So far, we have seen particles involved with 2 parts of our universe; those of matter and those of energy. The last types of particles we will talk about are those of the fundamental forces in our world. To do this we need to know what the fundamental forces are. There are 4 of them in total: gravity, electromagnetism, strong nuclear force and the weak nuclear force.

First, we have already looked at a form of electromagnetism, coming from photons. Photons are the disruption in an electromagnetic field. The force of electromagnetism is transferred through these electromagnetic fields, so when there is a disturbance in this field which results in a force and an energy change, which is why a photon is released.

The strong nuclear force is the force which holds the quarks together so they can form neutrons and protons in the centre of an atom. This force is transferred by a particle known as a gluon, which does exactly like it sounds like it would. It basically glues the quarks together through the strong force. The Large Hadron Collider, at CERN in Switzerland, is the  largest particle accelerator in the world to date. Part of what the LHC has done is observe quark gluon plasma, which is basically this interaction between quarks with the strong force.

The weak nuclear force is able to change the flavour of quarks and other particles spins through the emission of bosons. This may not seem like something that comes up very often, but it is a cool process. The particles are called W and Z bosons and what happens is when a particle, such as a quark, starts undergoing a weak decay, one of these bosons is released and through this emission the quarks properties can change. For example an up quark can be made when a down quark releases a W boson, which is then converted into other particles which we will discuss at another time.

Finally, we all know about gravity. Its what keeps us on the ground. This is typically referred to as a field force, which means it doesnt act by contact by at a distance. What most people would think of gravity as is the attraction between 2 objects. It is a very weak force compared to the other 3 which is why we only notice it when a mass is very large. The field also can only transmit the force at the speed of light. There is a particle which has been theorized, as is currently being looked for, called the graviton which would transfer the gravitational force. Its properties would be similar to the photon, such as it would have no mass. The way they are looking for this particle is by observing something called gravitational waves, which are ripples in spacetime caused by rapid motion of heavy masses, such as black holes. If gravitational waves are observed it would show that gravity is restricted by the speed of light and that gravitons are a major possibility.

In the last 3 posts i have talked about some particles of various types, but these were very limited descriptions, and even limited number of particles. There are many types of particles in our universe which are very intriguing and I hope to talk about more in the future.