Next to God - Kaons

“One example of the close connection between particle physics and cosmology is an experiment that was performed in 1965 using the particle accelerator at Brookhaven National Laboratory on Long Island, New York. According to prevailing theories, a certain symmetry in the early universe created equal amounts of matter and its opposite, antimatter. We can see something like this at Fermilab when collisions produce equal numbers of protons and their opposite, antiprotons. But when matter and antimatter collide, they annihilate each other in bursts of radiation. So if the early universe produced equal amounts of matter and antimatter, then either all the matter and antimatter should have consumed each other, leaving a universe of nothing but radiation, or the matter and antimatter may have in some way separated. If so, where is the antimatter?

 

From careful searches for the radiation that results from matter-antimatter annihilations, scientists learned that the density of antimatter in the observable universe was very small. The Brookhaven experiment helped solve the puzzle of the missing antimatter by revealing a violation of a certain symmetry in the decay of neutral kaons (a type of meson, which in turn is a subatomic particle that is made up of quarks and antiquarks). As a result of this tiny violation of symmetry, a slight excess of matter survived annihilation by antimatter. This surviving matter now forms the galaxies, stars, and planets.”

 

(From Encarta, Leon M. Lederman’s article.)

The Assumption Perspective

The moment you make the decision that 'this life' is high value, you will become more efficient by principle. The moment you decide this life has no value, it's just an worthless experience process of consciousness, you will show less care and zeal in living it and hence less efficiency and prosperity. The middle point might be somewhere along this continuum for every individual.

 

Life as a biological and mental process is made worth living due to mental or physical 'pain'. This is an immediate reason for continuing to live. Beyond this, we don't really have any concrete justification for living except for 'contrived purposes'. In a way, pain or pain of death (both mentally and physically) rules our lives.

Shooting the Body Clock

I always wondered why it is never as satisfying (and seems unnatural) playing games or doing similar cerebral activities during daytime rather than in nighttime. BBC Health reports that our body temperature rises during the day and boosts naturally occurring levels of adrenaline, hence the natural tendency for work and more outgoing activities (last clause mine). In the evenings, the body cools down, reaching its lowest temperature in the early hours, hence the preference and comfort in more cerebral activities (again, last clause mine).

 

Moreover, constantly changing patterns is disastrous for the body as the circadian rhythm is "completely shot". It might take several weeks to rectify an irregular pattern over several years. Scientists also add that they suspect long term damage done to other parts of the body.

 

Scientists sum up the problem by saying society has fundamentally changed in a very short period, but human biology has not. Some cope better than others, but whatever expectation we have of a 24-hour society, we cannot eliminate our inbuilt body clock*.

 

*The body clock aka circadian rhythm helps us stay awake and alert in the daytime and enables us to sleep and recuperate at night.

Meaning of Life...

[In reply to a mail from a reader in the Daily Star. Excuse the prudery... ;)]

I found it interesting that a reader has been asking around about the meaning of life. I can't blame him, I often do the same thing. Interestingly (or rather, should it be obviously), no one has yet come up with an answer, and some tell me coming up with an answer would spoil it. Personally, I do find it rather perplexing that we can barely answer the question 'what is life for' and still continue onwards with it with such overwhelming zeal. Perhaps that is why they dub it the human condition - the species who has done so much for its survival and enhancement without even understanding and penetrating the meaning of it.

I can form a halfway decent answer: that we human beings live life as ending it is too much pain, and taking it to the pinnacle is too much pleasure, neither of which most of us could handle as both require tremendous effort. Hence we spread the feelings and go on with it with a semblance of the much desired 'stability'. This balancing act, as has been identified starting from the Greeks, might be a weak definition of life as we now experience and understand. But then again, it has the folly of defining 'the process' rather than 'the why' of it. Frankly, I am not sure human beings would ever understand it; or if we even do (or might have done), if the answer is not favorable to our skewed psyches, accept it even.

Despite such directionless metaphysical wondering, as the above two paragraphs surely are, I believe we should still continue to try to define life and its meaning. Even this lack of comprehension is enlightening and can make us wise.