the god particle (revised)

[mnaz]

You hear about the “God particle” on Interstate 82, into the first taste of sagebrush. As feed stores and military ranges whizz by, the radio explains how physicists want a new particle. Key to it all. Later, when you reach open space, you think of its antithetical (deific) particle, the radio one. Not sure why. Always wondered what holds it all together, the careening particles; something must keep it together deep in the stitching, the unknown matters of space. Is it God? So we’ll find the smallest grain, and great metaphysical mystical dominoes will tumble. But on the radio, big questions still sound a little mundane, like "how do particles acquire mass?"

So you google it somewhere, probably Tonopah, which makes no sense. The road is a place to write notes to vanishing ribbons and broken motels, maybe clever allegory about ravens versus crows. But the urge is strong: “755,217 results, time: 0.18 seconds" at your fingers. Big swig of cyber grog. You picture whole districts jammed with servers, many thousands hooked together, sheer data lust. Heat comes off that array; keep it hosed down. Yeah, probably Tonopah. You're pulled east and west by raw fields of light among the dry and mighty ranges, and Tonopah at the center of it. Can't find a way out of that state. You find a computer terminal, and what turns up onscreen has little to do with the road, aside perhaps from a compulsion over far mysteries of space. But it’s a fine story, and you will indulge it.

Underneath France are miles of catwalks and rings of super-conducting monster magnets in a mammoth, sinister tunnel where they will smash particles harder than ever, hunting for essence. And there was talk of building an even bigger, more costly monstrosity in China. Leave it to a bazillion dollars to chase God riddles, the latest Babel tower, except buried in the crust this time, in a behemoth particle shredder, the biggest one yet, a ducted steel octopus Star Trek nightmare built to chase a thing so unimaginably infinitesimal, yet “the key,” all because a few physicists were restless. Seems they’ve ridden the “standard model” for thirty years, and it’s reliable and boring like an old Toyota pickup, but short on philosophical style.

It’s not enough to know that atoms are electron clouds one hundred millionth of a centimeter wide around nuclei a hundred thousand times smaller; we need to know why. Need a theory to answer basic, child-like questions, since they are the best musings. Like why are things the size they are? And weigh what they weigh? Electron clouds, perhaps? They’d have smaller orbits if they had less mass, and things would be smaller. But what is “less mass” in the realm of theoretically massless? And what is mass? You see the problem here, this razor edge obsession, and how the brain might trick itself. Or maybe it’s on the verge of a great portal. Acid man could relate if his pizza grew five times bigger or smaller depending on the latest theory of mass. Yes, we need a unified theory, an elegant solution, something to satisfy the scientists and preachers, even long-haired mystics and politicians.

Well, a guy named Higgs proposed a field, through which particles move and acquire mass in so doing. Not bad, but a bit of a mind-screw. In this milieu, the “field” is yet more particles. Could a “pure field” exist? Could “empty space” exist? In theory, Higgs’ field consists of “Higgs boson” particles sprinkled throughout even the blankest vacuums of space. So we shall seek the grail boson in a fearsome juggernaut under France, even if it's all a little absurd. Contractors will build anything you want for billions of dollars, in this case using gigantic worms with metal teeth. Careful what you want. But what’s the harm in chasing a theory to explain everything? Perhaps even gravity? That’s right. Still can’t explain simple gravity. Kind of puts “progress” in perspective. So why not spend bazillions to hollow out the rock, try to find God?

Whoa, jargon overload. You look up from the screen and out the window to a mythic desert rise, to ethereal fringes of the (not literally) empty. Why not keep up the chase? You continue reading. Something about these new collisions spinning off "miniature black holes." Black holes? Might this “God” be a little perturbed at our prying? You picture an odd crease forming in some pasture in France, slowly at first, then a sudden sinkhole, and then the Alps swirling into a cosmic drain. Judgment day. Blip. Was cracking the atom enough? Ah, but mere invisible particles won’t get the better of us. Too smart for that.

[stilltrucking]

I think I have read every version and this is the best so far. I can hear what you are saying so clearly now. A good read, a good ride. You took me past the jargon that was confusing me.


random quote of the day

The SSC's planned collision energy of 40 TeV was almost triple the 14 TeV of its European counterpart, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN in Geneva.
http://www.damninteresting.com/americas ... ercollider

[dadio]

Insightful prose.

[mnaz]

thank you, jack and dadio.

most of these pieces are tied to my endless (desert) road trip from a few years back, and i'm incorporating them into my (expanded) book on the subject. so i suppose they perhaps make a little more sense taken in that context. tonopah is tonopah, nevada (the real desert). not arizona. thanks again.