Matter
Elementary Particles as nodes of the reality
Christian Hermenau
Contents
Contents
Water!
H2O
Evolution and the Many
From a Building Block Tower to the Pyramid
The Thinking
The action
Ordered Structures
Knowing particles
Lights
Just a gene code
Water and Carbon
Is there emergence?
Statistics
Deterministic and yet free
Deeper order patterns
Gravitation
Learning to think in networks
A new beginning in physics
The Standard Model of Particles
Protons and neutrons
The sizes of the structures
Fusion
Supernova
Particles of the 2nd Generation
Cosmic particles
The beta plus decay
Matter!
Water!
Water is probably the most valuable substance in the universe.
It is more valuable than gold and diamonds, because liquid water is the key to life of any kind. Gold and diamonds may be beautiful and fascinating materials, but if there is no life that can evaluate objects, then even the purest diamond is useless and uninteresting. A materiality, such an ordinary liquid as this water here on earth, creates more, much more - everywhere.
In it, and perhaps only in it, life can arise in a reasonable time. It is probably only in this universal solvent that molecules can assemble in such a way that they become complex and grow. Only in water can the building blocks of life be put together again and again in new and different ways. It is the nutrient medium, the experimental building block of creation. Moving water, dissolved with substances, is literally waiting to get started.
Although water can rest still and almost motionless pure and clean deep inside the earth, this is rather the exception. Water is so light and viscous that it is always in motion. Pure clean water sounds so good, so healthy in our ears, but too pure water is not the best for us who need life to live. Only water in motion with dissolved minerals and full of organisms is living water and really good for us. Germ-free, pure sterile water kills us. We need the dissolved ions and even the germs in it that make up our lives. Not every bacterium, of course, but most of them found in clean, living water are part of our lives and belong to us humans. We come from the water, are formed in the water, have detached ourselves, but never freed ourselves from it. Always and always we have to renew our bodies with fresh water. And it must always come from outside, because water cannot be recycled in the body. Only in the eternal cycle of the outside world do processes in it renew themselves. Water has to be filled with complexity from the outside again and again, only then is it valuable for us and keeps us healthy and alive.
Of course, as described above, not water is the most valuable thing, but life; microbiotic life, unicellular life, simple higher life, higher complex life or even thinking, networked, higher life. We ourselves are at the very top of the hierarchy, even if we may only know contempt for some of our fellow humans because they do bad things or are just so much different from us. Then we are much more valuable than ordinary water, but without this liquid substance there would be no life for us and all life on earth. If we knew of a solar system with a planet orbiting it that clearly has sufficient amounts of water, we would be almost certain that there would be life there. What kind of life then depends on the details. How long the water was liquid, how stable is the orbit, were there major star explosions nearby and does the planet has an atmosphere? But if it is only a matter of whether there is any life at all on the foreign planet, then the presence of liquid water in sufficient quantity is enough for us.
On the moon or Mars we would be grateful if there were life in its simplest form. Single-celled organisms or just bacteria, even a virus or very long-chain molecules would delight us on the moon. But the moon is without water, has probably never seen liquid water and is biologically probably so dead and germ-free, as one will find it nowhere on the Earth's surface. Our moon, which is so important for life on earth, has nothing to offer from a human point of view. And apart from the fact that it is still a huge technical challenge to visit it even today, there is nothing worth the journey. The astronauts who entered it probably noticed immediately how creepy empty and boring it is, the thought of having to live there - unimaginable. Only what we bring from the earth is of value and the view from the moon to the only jewel at the moon firmament, to the earth. Our spirit must bring along the stories from the earth to the moon. Then an astronaut can feel a deep reverence, standing at the crater rim in the grey cement like stardust. He, representing the many spectators at the television sets on Earth. But what the moon traveller feels does not come from the inspiring world of the moon, but from the stories in him, brought along from the earth. The moon is dead, it has probably always been. It is so bleak because there is no liquid water to be found on it, it cannot hold water and it could never hold it. If there were gold or diamonds on it or actually rare valuable raw materials, one would perhaps play through whether it is worth to mine them. But liquid water in large quantities on the moon would change everything. And yet it was a completely crazy extraordinary enterprise that really humans visited another celestial body and even survived this. An extra-terrestrial world that reflects what makes up most of the rest of the universe: dead-bringing matter and timeless space. We live in a time bubble and forget how miraculous it is.
Even with Mars, our neighbouring planet, we do not expect really living organisms, not even in their simplest form. If at all one adjusts oneself to remains of former life. There was probably water on Mars in its early days, but Mars with its small mass has slowly lost water and the atmosphere to space due to the solar wind. Today it is too cold on Mars and all liquid water has disappeared since billions of years. Only the grooves and imprints in the rock bear witness to another past. In the gradation from wasteland to wasteland Mars is certainly more attractive, because at least it still has a light atmosphere in which the sunlight reflects, so that the planet offers a familiar mild illumination like on earth. Unlike the moon, where there is only some light where sunlight hits directly, but otherwise the black dark space as sky swallows all light. On Mars there are even light winds, which can sometimes turn into dangerous dust storms. Sounds are transmitted and therefore everything seems to be more alive. But it is not. We will certainly last a little longer on Mars than on the moon before we feel how empty it is, but as a result both worlds are not made for us. In addition, one would only see the earth as a small bright point at the sky and feel lonelier. If we ever fly to Mars, it's definitely not like to go on holiday. The long journey and the stay there already represent an extreme challenge and certainly strain the psyche of each one. Again, if there were still large quantities of liquid water, the journey there and the expectations would be quite different. The whole interest in Mars would be completely changed if we knew that there is liquid water. With enough water, it wouldn't look as bleak as it does now.
We have the unmistakable feeling that a Mars with sufficient liquid water on its surface would have at least large amounts of microorganisms and simple unicellular plants. Whether he would then have a higher complex life in any case is not certain, because the complex life requires an enormous leap in development. We know or feel that water is the key to biological life. There is a reason why it is so important for the earth and we feel that this is not only true for the earth but for all life as we know it.
But what is so special about water?
H2O
Its structure is very simple. Water has a molecule consisting of one oxygen and two hydrogen atoms. The two hydrogen atoms together form an angle of exactly 104.45° to each other. The nuclear spin also plays a role, so that there are two types of water. But important is the unequal charge distribution. The hydrogen atoms willingly give their only electron to the dominant oxygen atom, so that the water molecules are not electrically neutral, but bipolar. Because of these dipoles of the charges, hydrogen bonds are formed, which make water so special. On the one hand, the hydrogen bonds easily form entire clusters for fractions of a second, which in themselves represent something unique, but which also lead to the peculiarities of water. For example, its highest density is at 4°C and thus lies still in the liquid range. With no other substance does the density decrease with increasing cold. Water has the highest heat capacity of all liquids. Apart from mercury, water has the highest surface tension and the highest evaporation enthalpy. Water is a universal solvent for many substances, ions and organic compounds. And because of the hydrogen bonds, it remains liquid for a long time in a temperature range where organic long-chain compounds can be formed in a reasonable time. If the liquid state were much lower or much higher, compounds would form much too slowly or would be destroyed immediately if temperatures were too high. Even if the seas and lakes freeze over, not all the water freezes over, but as soon as the pressure rises, it still remains liquid at four degrees Celsius. So life can also survive catastrophes such as an icing of a planet.
But all these peculiarities of water do not explain why life as we know it can only develop as well in water.
Another celestial body, which is already too far away to undertake a research trip with humans, is Saturn's moon Titan. Saturn lies in the outer solar system and its largest and closest moon is Titan. It is quite a bit larger than our moon, but still far less than half the size of Mars. Therefore, just like Mars, it should have no atmosphere, because it is too light and has no effective protection against the solar wind, which over millions of years would take an originally existing atmosphere into space. Amazingly, Titan has a nitrogen atmosphere that is even 50% denser than that on Earth. The reason for this is Saturn's magnetic field, which is so strong and extends so far into space that it also protects the nearby Titan moon from the charged particle stream of the Sun. In contrast to the Earth, Titan's moon has an atmosphere of 98.4% nitrogen. The earth, on the other hand, has only 57%. Except some argon and methane there is no oxygen. However, also the primordial earth had almost no oxygen in the atmosphere. An atmosphere came first with organisms. Interesting about Titan are the large lakes of liquid methane, i.e. hydrocarbon compounds. A few scientists consider methane to be an even better medium for life than water, but they probably just want to contradict the current theories. But if this is the case, it won't help much, because methane melts at -182°C and vaporizes at -162°C. So it has only a narrow area where it is liquid and the range is extremely cold. Both are a problem for life. On the one hand, the reaction rates at low temperatures are very slow and on the other hand, this temperature will not remain so exactly suitable in this narrow temperature range for billions of years. Life formation processes take much longer with slow reactions, if they take place at all, and then the time period at which methane is liquid, at the narrow temperature range, is most probably only short. But at least there is a lot of tidal frictional heat inside Titan and it is thought that there is a lot of water. This means that there is some hope that there are living organisms. Only, the actually interesting higher complex life will probably not exist, because it needs much more favourable conditions to really make this step. The difference between simple and complex life represents such a huge leap that the conditions on Titan are simply too unfavourable. Unfortunately, the undetectable oxygen in the atmosphere is also rather an indication that there will be no organisms in the water in the depths of Titan that require chemical combustion with oxygen. A kind of photosynthesis, in which energy is stored by sunlight, has much more difficult conditions due to the great distance to the sun. If this is the case, it takes much longer for the atmosphere to change.
A visit to Mars will probably be the only feasible excursion to another planet. If we are close to Mars, the distance is about 0.5 AU. But to Saturn it is 8.5 AU in the best case. So the distance would be at least 17 times as far as to Mars. Who wants and who can fly back and forth through space for at least twelve years without being damaged and what should a spaceship look like that has fresh vegetables, water, food, as well as sufficient fuel for over 12 years; and all that only for, if at all, a few microbes.
The only celestial body that is a bit like our primordial earth, protected by a magnetic field of the great Saturn, equipped with an atmosphere, some light, liquid lakes and probably heat and water inside, is a moon. And although it lives almost like a neighbour next door, it is already out of reach for a research trip. There is no alternative to the earth and probably that is good so. All potential in this solar system, in this galaxy was put into the earth and it worked. It took a long time and we were several times at the edge of the abyss, but then the higher life prevailed.
There we are, each of us - Today!
Evolution and the Many
With all these peculiarities, which also try to explain in purely scientific terms why it is water that forms the basis for biological life, there is still a feeling of unease whether such a liquid, no matter how cleverly it is, alone is sufficient to explain highly complex life. Let us look at creation purely technically like a master builder who has many good materials at his disposal. Then nature as a constructor can go further and create something, if it takes the most different extraordinary materials and joins them again and again differently. So the idea of how evolution works is in us. Nature as a huge experimental kit, that slowly works its way up from mistake to mistake. By means of trial and error and a selection process, which examines and evaluates everything; and all this runs by itself. If then everything is large enough and there are enormous periods of time available, then the whole thing runs. It works and improves itself. Perhaps our evaluation problem lies in the fact that we cannot really imagine the many. Not how much material one needs that something happens by itself and also not from what a billion years mean. Animals can usually only count up to three, and then the many come. We have a much more differentiated idea of numbers and we use analogies. But we cannot cope with the really large numbers either. For example, what does it really mean to have a billion euro? What does this money, this figure really mean for a single person? What are a hundred billion nerve cells in the brain or a smallest time step of 10-23 s; a core size of 10-15 m or a distance to the neighbouring sun of four light years?
Light takes four years, but nothing from our familiar environment comes close to the speed of light. So how far is the neighbouring sun really away?
For most people, the speed of almost 200 km/h by car is the most they can control. But this would mean that we are 21 million years on the way to neighbour's sun. 200 km/h tells us what, 21 million years again not. 21 million years simply do not fit into our accustomed living environment. If you have the one number as a familiar order of magnitude, the other becomes unreal. Perhaps this is the actual reason why we are satisfied with the explanatory model of evolutionary theory. We have no feeling for long periods of time and what is feasible. That is why we are rather pragmatic. With enough material and time, everything will develop by itself. At some point the universe will manage to have a smartphone created by thinking beings in every corner of the universe. All we need is the right telephone number and a wormhole and we can call a relative on a second earth in another part of the universe.
From a Building Block Tower to the Pyramid
But if we stay by our earth and look at the experimental kit that is available to us, then we will soon reach our limits more quickly than we would like to. If this wild trying out of the possibilities, the play in the wind should lead at all to something meaningful, then definitely not to living organisms. If you don't just want to build a building block tower like a child, which as an act of creation is even something extraordinary, but a huge pyramid, one need completely different conditions if such a project should succeed. You have to know how to level and stabilize a foundation of such dimensions. You have to have an idea of how huge boulders are carved out of the stone and then transported. You need a great deal of technical and mathematical knowledge. In addition, at least 7000 workers over 30 years must be supplied, accommodated and employed. So also the whole logistic, the management has to be mastered. If you want to create a monument that is still so impressive, even for today's world and that in less than thirty years, then you need the appropriate skills and knowledge. If we as spectators in ancient times had been with the Egyptians, we could follow everything closely and then explain how it works. Then we see how the pyramid developed in a reasonable time, how many people were there and how everything was organized. We can explain what is happening. But would all this also work with dogs, elephants or monkeys; without a human being as a master builder in the background?
What is so different about humans, why do they even come up with the idea of erecting a monument that goes far beyond the possibilities and powers of an individual?
Why does a single human being, a pharaoh, want to immortalize himself in a way that does not make sense for the community and fits the species, as is the case with an anthill or termite mound? Why are so many people willing to fulfil the wish of an individual, even to be shot dead in war for a person they don't know better, and this not even in a manageable group, but to millions. Millions of people let themselves be guided and led, for the fatherland, for God's son or for the king. Empires, great nations simply function - smoothly. A small elitist group tells the masses there are too little living space and millions stand behind this idea, even if everything was just invented and lied.
We humans love stories, everyone even the unimaginative. Our brains are full of dream images and fantasies. That "telling a story" penetrates mankind since our brain became so big. We tell the world as we have experienced it, but also as we would like to have it or would like to shape it. With the stories it is not the truth that we want to hear, but the horror, the exaggeration, the unusual and crazy. A good story has to be alive and sweeping it has to address us personally. Then we listen to it, then we can think of the characters, fall in love with them or tremble with them. In the past they were only stories, today they are movies that take us to other worlds, which appeal to almost all our senses. In fact, it is outstanding in humans that we can not only be captivated by stories, but also seduced and controlled.
It are not the stones, the materials that create a pyramid of such dimensions, but the abstract, mental, mathematical and physical calculations and considerations that must be there in order to build a pyramid. The history of the ancient gods of the Egyptians creates the desire to be immortalized in the Pharaoh and drives the ordinary people to fulfil this wish. The ordinary Egyptians really believed the story that Pharaoh was a god. A fictional narrative about the things people didn't understand - about the world of the gods - handed down and decorated over generations. And what you can't do with any animal works with humans: To use an idea to get thousands of people to work on a monument for eternity. And from this perspective, mathematics or architectural calculations are only a story that the formulas promise us. If the formulas are right, if the sober but only mentally existing story is right, then pyramids or skyscrapers of modernity can be built and they don't simply fall over or collapse. In scientific stories, the possible arrangements of materials can be played through much more quickly than in reality.
For the primitive humans, a trap for a mammoth had to be tried out with small model objects, reality transferred to small figures, so that everyone understood the idea. This was a great mental development and was much more effective than trying out new techniques with real animals during the hunt. One could talk about reality with each other on the basis of the model. Today, however, in most cases we do not need any models at all, just a sheet of paper and abstract formulas and calculations on it. Meanwhile the computers with the craziest simulation programs tell us what we can do. But no matter what the means look like, we always make a story out of them that as many people as possible should believe. So we have the story of curved spaces, of time that can walk more slowly, of wormholes and of the Big Bang; of dark matter, white dwarves and black holes. The fact that such stories run so well, even if individuals do not believe in them is due to the networks. When the seed is sown and the majority of people feel threatened or think they have too little living space, then suddenly these truths or lies that have been put into the world become reality. Only then do the stones of the pyramid fit together properly, or a country prepares itself and moves to foreign countries, taking away the habitat of others without any scruples.