Ben Kilminster is a friend and a distinguished colleague working for the CMS and CDF experiments. Besides being a long-time higgs hunter, having sought that particle for over a decade in the two mentioned experiments, Ben is a veteran of science outreach since for many years he has published summaries of CDF results for the public on the online magazine "Fermilab Today". When I saw him posting on a social network an earlier version of the text below, which I liked a lot, I asked him to make it a guest post entry for my blog, and he graciously agreed. The piece is titled "How The Universe Works - in Ten Sentences". Thanks Ben!
I mark with a * some logical leaps that scientists make.
I mark with a * some logical leaps that scientists make.
The
universe began*, and when it was just a 10 billionth of a second
old, and about 100 trillion times hotter than today, the weak nuclear
force that mutates matter into other types of matter and
the electromagnetic force that attracts charged objects spontaneously
broke apart.
At some point in these first moments, matter became favored* over anti-matter, and as the universe grew colder, bound states of quarks were created from the strong nuclear force, producing protons which later attracted electrons through the electromagnetic force to make hydrogen.
Due to a large amount of an unknown component* of matter called dark matter, hydrogen clumped into various scales of structure, which later collapsed into clusters of galaxies and galaxies within them.
Another unknown component* of energy kept the universe expanding at ever increasing speeds, resisting the gravitational urge to collapse everything, but meanwhile the hydrogen in the galaxies was gravitationally collapsing into stars.
The stars burned for a while using the weak nuclear force to produce energy to avert their total gravitational collapse, but finally ran out of hydrogen, and the extreme pressure of the collapse fused hydrogen into heavy elements while blowing up the stars.
The stars coalesced again with hydrogen and these heavier elements, and began burning again, providing tremendous heat and gravity even hundreds of millions of miles away, while some of the ejected material was attracted into stable structures, gravitationally bound to the stars, called planets, composed of metals and other heavy elements that made them heavy enough to attract an atmosphere and provide lots of elements for molecular structures.
In planets far enough from the stars for liquids not to freeze or evaporate, the heat and elements started chemical reactions which produced complex molecules, and as the molecules starting interacting, more complex molecular chains were formed, and eventually generated structures which were capable of replicating.
The successful chains continued to engulf other materials to sustain their growth*, and life was born, competing until some of them were dominant over the others, successfully garnering more of the molecules available, and over time, some living structures began to work together forming more complex structures in order to eat more stuff, and reproduce themselves, using a detailed molecular plan of their properties.
Finally, the complex structures began asking silly questions like how the universe works in less than 10 sentences.
At some point in these first moments, matter became favored* over anti-matter, and as the universe grew colder, bound states of quarks were created from the strong nuclear force, producing protons which later attracted electrons through the electromagnetic force to make hydrogen.
Due to a large amount of an unknown component* of matter called dark matter, hydrogen clumped into various scales of structure, which later collapsed into clusters of galaxies and galaxies within them.
Another unknown component* of energy kept the universe expanding at ever increasing speeds, resisting the gravitational urge to collapse everything, but meanwhile the hydrogen in the galaxies was gravitationally collapsing into stars.
The stars burned for a while using the weak nuclear force to produce energy to avert their total gravitational collapse, but finally ran out of hydrogen, and the extreme pressure of the collapse fused hydrogen into heavy elements while blowing up the stars.
The stars coalesced again with hydrogen and these heavier elements, and began burning again, providing tremendous heat and gravity even hundreds of millions of miles away, while some of the ejected material was attracted into stable structures, gravitationally bound to the stars, called planets, composed of metals and other heavy elements that made them heavy enough to attract an atmosphere and provide lots of elements for molecular structures.
In planets far enough from the stars for liquids not to freeze or evaporate, the heat and elements started chemical reactions which produced complex molecules, and as the molecules starting interacting, more complex molecular chains were formed, and eventually generated structures which were capable of replicating.
The successful chains continued to engulf other materials to sustain their growth*, and life was born, competing until some of them were dominant over the others, successfully garnering more of the molecules available, and over time, some living structures began to work together forming more complex structures in order to eat more stuff, and reproduce themselves, using a detailed molecular plan of their properties.
Finally, the complex structures began asking silly questions like how the universe works in less than 10 sentences.
Und der Herbststurm treibt die Blätter,
die ganz welk sind, vor sich her,
und es ist so schlechtes Wetter —
ach, wenns doch schon Winter wär!
Und es fallen weiße Flocken,
zwanzig Grad sind es und mehr,
und man friert in sienen Socken —
ach, wenns doch schon Frühling wär!
Und der Schnee schmilzt auf den Gassen,
und der Frühling kommt vom Meer,
einsam ist man und verlassen —
ach, wenns doch schon Sommer wär!
Und dann wird es schließlich Juli,
und die Arbeit fällt so schwer,
denn man transpiriert wien Kuli —
ach, wenn es doch Herbst schon wär!
usw. usw.
And the autumn gales toss the leaves,
so withered, here and there
and the weather is so terrible
Oh, if only winter would hurry up!
And white flakes are falling,
twenty degrees or more below,
one freezes in one’s socks —
if only spring would hurry up!
Now the snow is melting in the streets,
And spring comes in from the sea,
One is alone and forlorn —
if only summer would hurry along!
And now at last it’s July,
and work is so laborious,
one is sweating like a coolie —
Oh, if only autumn would hurry up!
etc. etc
I was thinking of verse 2 because it has been snowing in Britain these last two days.