Search for Knowledge or Meaning?
What are the Physical sciences?:
Physical sciences, as a branch of natural science, study non-living systems in the inorganic world. This is distinct from the biological/life sciences which focus on organic world. Physical science, in general, consists of four broad areas, namely astronomy, physics, chemistry, and earth sciences. Each of these is in turn divided into fields and subfields.[1]
Trends down the Corridor of Time:
Research in physical sciences is the backbone of our universal development. Consequently the understanding of the reality also has been increasing. The perception of reality has gone through many phases of increasing understanding:
- Initially, Aristotle (384-322 BCE) proposed single dimensional world view, through the so called ‘Correspondence Principle’.
- Euclid (323-285 BCE), often called the ‘father of geometry’, made the perceptible world two dimensional (length and breadth).
- After a long gap of thirteen centuries, Newton (1643-1727 CE) came to enhance the world picture – He made it three-dimensional (namely, length, breadth, height/depth). He was instrumental in the scientific revolution. His laws, especially the laws of motion and the law of gravitation, still rule the world on a macro scale.
- The world-view was finetuned by Einstein (1879-1955 CE), who proposed four-dimensional concept of the universe, adding time to the three-dimensional concept, known as space-time continuum, soon ushering in matter-wave nature of quantum picture of reality.
- The world picture seems to be still incomplete. Whatever be the reality, what exists is what one perceives! It is the consciousness that gives the fifth dimension to the reality. This becoming conscious of reality goes beyond the deterministic world of Newton as well as the relativistic world of Einstein. What is out there depends on one’s perception and understanding.
Hence, the perception of the world, physically or conceptually, is a possibility of probability – in fact, a spectrum of possibilities.[2] Our scientific journey is still on from the world of probability towards finding certainty once again.
Initially, it was thought that an atom is the principle and foundation of building matter and it is indivisible. Then came to light the reality of the nucleus and the electron cloud with the nucleus having two species: proton and neutron. The proton itself is now considered to be made up of three quarks. Now, there are numerous subatomic particles in the nucleus. At present there are at least 36 confirmed fundamental particles, including anti-particles. More than 200 subatomic particles have been detected so far, and most appear to have a corresponding antiparticles.[3] They are classified in two types of subatomic particles as elementary and composite particles. Particles and anti-particles make us look at the matter-energy equation of Einstein: E = mc2 critically. Could we understand this as E = +mc2 for particles and E = -mc2 for anti-particles?[4] This would also bring in the question of energy (positive energy) and dark-energy (negative energy). Dark matter and dark energy are gaining currency in research[5] especially when the scientists have started revisiting the Big Bang and Big Crunch concepts as well as the reality and implications of Black Holes.
The scenario 13.8 billion years ago, at the assumed moment of Big Bang, when compared to the present situation is astounding:[6]
| Matter-Energy Content of Universe | 13.8 billion Years ago (at Big Bang) | At Present |
| Dark Matter | 63% | 26.1% |
| Photons | 15% | — |
| Atoms | 12% | 4.5% |
| Neutrinos | 10% | — |
| Dark Energy | — | 69.4% |
It is believed that the visible matter in the universe accounts for only 4.5% of the total matter (ie. mass and energy) – This is called ‘well behaved ordinary matter’; while 26% of the universe-matter is invisible matter (known as ‘dark-matter’). And the rest, ie. 69%, would be of dark-energy. Much study is underway to understand the dark-matter and dark-energy.
In January 2012, Christoph Weniger, an astroparticle physicist at the University of Amsterdam, discovered a strange type of radiation around the center of our galaxy. He interpreted that the glow could be a signal of dark-matter particles smashing into each other and, in the process, transforming from something invisible to something visible.[7] The detection (on Oct 16th 2017) of gravitational waves created by two neutron stars smashing into each other (which are about 130 million years ago) confirms the presence of dark matter in the universe.[8] More study could throw better light in this area.
Milestones in Physical Sciences:
- Doppler Shift:
Based on Doppler Shift of incoming radiation from the space and combining with Slipher’s measurements of the velocities of nebulas, Edwin Hubble could estimate their distance in 1929 and he found out that on an average such objects are moving away from Earth with a velocity proportional to their distance. That is, the farther the galaxy is from us, the faster is its expansion.[9] This would emphasise the theory of relativity as well as it would take us to the Big Bang – Big Crunch discussion eventually bringing in the Black Hole reality.
- Big Bang and Big Crunch:
In the beginning of the time, most scientists believed, there was a ‘Big Bang’.[10] About 13.8 billion years ago our universe was only a few millimeters across[11]; and the temperature of the universe, at about one-hundredth of a second, was about 1031 degrees of Centigrade (At that point of time, the entire universe would have acted as a nuclear fusion reactor). Approximately one second after the Big Bang, the universe was about 400,000 times denser than water, and the temperature was about 10×109 K. Matter, at that point of time, mostly consisted of protons and neutrons.[12] But what do we know about the initial condition at time t = 0, known as the primordial singularity? That remains still a challenge and it would remain a challenge for years or even centuries to come.
We do not know how much (visible) matter was present at the Big Bang but we could see there was enormous amount of energy (using, Energy E = kT, with T as the initial temperature and k, Boltzmann’s constant). Thus, objects were flying apart from each other. And this exploding-expansion was very much necessary to keep off particles from anti-particles lest they should annihilate each other releasing energy, mostly gamma radiation. With inflation theory plus the dark matter tagged on, the big-bang theory is better understood. In fact, when the scientists talk about Big Bang they mean: [13]
dark energy
Big-Bang → Inflation with Matter + Dark-Matter.
But there are now two forces in the universe, which are competing with each other, namely, the velocity (v) with which the universe is expanding and the gravitational force (g) which tries to attract everything closer together. At present, v > g, that is, the universe is still expanding. But the difference between v and g is slowly but steadily decreasing. That means there will come a time when v = g and then onwards the picture would be g > v, that is, the gravitational force ‘g’ will begin to take over the expanding velocity ‘v’. Then the implosion of the universe will begin. The universe will fold, so to say, on itself and as the size of the universe becomes smaller and smaller, the density of the universe will increase and the temperature will rise enormously. This is the beginning of Black-Hole – This would be the Big Crunch.[14] This is also the Friedmann’s model of the universe, which begins with zero size and expands until gravitational attraction slows it down, and eventually causes it to collapse in upon itself.[15] Will there be once again Big Bang? Scientists are open to the possibility but religious belief might come into conflict.
- Black Hole:
When the Big Crunch begins the Black Hole begins to form. Most black holes form from the remnants of a large star that dies in a supernova explosion. A Black Hole is believed to be a region of spacetime where gravity is so strong that nothing, no particles or even electromagnetic radiation such as light, can escape from it. The theory of General Relativity predicts that a sufficiently compact mass can deform spacetime to form a black hole.[16] It is estimated that a remarkable amount of around 1% of the overall ordinary matter of the universe is locked up in stellar mass black holes. Astonishingly, the researchers have found that the number of black holes within the observable universe at present time is about 4,000×106 (four billion).[17]
Recently, as reported in the journal Nature (July 2021), astronomers have now detected light behind a Black Hole for the first time. Observing deep in the universe, researchers discovered bright X-ray flares emerging from a supermassive black hole at the centre of another galaxy, which is nearly 800 million light-years away. This recent detection would change our understanding of the mystery in the universe that can suck planets and stars, defying gravitational forces.[18] Very recently scientists have captured actual photos of formation of Black Hole due to colliding of two stars.[19] And merger of Black Holes has been discovered for the first time. It has been observed that egg-shaped eccentric orbits form when two Black Holes spiral towards each other and collide under each other’s strong gravitational influence.[20]
- Entering the Sun’s Atmosphere:
The Parker Solar Probe, about the size of a small car, launched in 2018 by NASA, after a three year journey and surviving a roughly 2 million degree Fahrenheit environment, has entered the Sun’s atmosphere in Dec2021. The mission was to learn more about solar winds, which consists of streams of particles that influence the earth as well as magnetic fields, and the Sun’s surface temperature.[21]
- Living and Procreating Robots:
Today, we are living in an age of Artificial Intelligence, living in a Digital Society. Scientists who could bring up the world’s first living robots think that these can replicate and generate offspring. It is believed that this could help us explain the origin of life on the Earth.[22] In Dec2021, researchers in the University of Vermont (USA) have enabled new lifeforms known as Xenobots to produce ‘offspring.’ The biological robots were designed on a supercomputer by artificial intelligence and then built in real life using embryonic stem cells from a frog. When the team tested the AI’s design in the lab, they were amazed when the Xenobots actually started self-replicating.[23]
Understanding the Universe:
So far, Dark Matter, Dark Energy, Black Hole are strange and mysterious to us. When one wonders how all these came to be, various theories are proposed. Many theories are proposed to understand the origin and destination of the universe, such as String Theory, Supersymmetry Theory, M-Theory, Unified Theory, Theory of Everything etc. Each one gives a little more understanding of the mysterious universe but none has succeeded in giving us a comprehensive nor complete theory of the universe. All we know is that the beginning of the universe, whether due to scientific Big Bang or religious Creation, should have been a simple one – We are missing the point somewhere in understanding that simplicity. The area of dark matter and dark energy is another challenge for the physicists to delve into research.
We need to understand our physical laws. According to Einstein’s first law of Special Theory of Relativity, the laws of physics are the same for all non-accelerating observers or in the absence of gravity. But we see that physics laws operate differently depending on dimensions and scales: Within the nucleus, like-charges (ie. protons) attract each other but outside of the nucleus like-charges repel each other. Atom, which is the building block of matter, is made of core positive charge with the periphery of negative charge. Conversely a cell, which is the building block of biosystem, comprises of negatively charged inner core and positively charged protoplasm (periphery). While an atom has rest mass energy, with increase in mass as the velocity increases, a cell possess energy revealed through the characteristic vibrational frequency. Universe loves symmetry and harmony. But we understand it only partially.
Probability principles apply to micro world of subatomic particles, while Newton’s laws hold good for the macro world. And Kepler’s laws govern planetary motion. Gravitation itself seems to vary from attractive to repulsive depending on the dimension of the universe. In our universe the gravitational force is attractive but beyond Milky Way and farther the gravitational force, due to dark energy, is repulsive keeping particles and anti-particles apart. In the realm of dark matter the possibility of life is little, given the detected background radiation of 3 K, discovered by Robert Wilson in 1964, from outer space (in which condition life cannot originate and survive.[24]
Have we gone too far?:
We have discovered so much and our technology has become so sophisticated. But what have we achieved? During the Covid-19 pandemic our science and technology could not come to our rescue. We could peep into the solar furnace first hand but we are not able to tackle the Micron.
We have made tremendous advancements in electricity, electronics, and communication. But A. Firstenberg in his soul-searching book The Invisible Rainbow: A History of Electricity and Life explores the relationship between electricity and life from the early eighteenth century to today and makes a compelling case that the major diseases of civilization – heart diseases, diabetes, and cancer – are in large part related to the pollution of our world by electricity.[25] The following is the summary of the cause and effect due to electricity and radiation:[26]
| Cause | Effect |
| 1917: Electrification in the world (Radio Waves) | 1918: Spanish Flu |
| 1935: Radar Waves | 1939: World War II (death due to radiation) |
| 1957: Radio-active Satellites | 1968: Hong Kong Flu |
| 2018: 5G and 20,000 Satellites in operation | 2019: Coronavirus Pandemic |
| First City completely covered by 5G | Origin of Corona in Wuhan |
| Cellphone and Microwave towers | No birds nest on them – Honey bees fast disappearing (getting disoriented because of EM radiation) |
And recently we were informed that the introduction of 5G services in the USA by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) on 14Jan2022 will disrupt international aviation services as it interferes with the aircraft’s radio altimeter that could prevent engine and braking systems from transitioning to landing mode, which could even prevent an aircraft from stopping on the runway.[27] We need to reflect whether we have become the prisoners of our own inventions and discoveries? Shouldn’t we concentrate on safeguarding ourselves and our universe we live in?
Understanding Ourselves:
As researchers in various areas of specialization mostly comprising physics, chemistry, and biology, we could see that physics and chemistry are at the service of biology – Not only to understand the mechanism but to understand the living beings better. A single atom of physics and a molecule of chemistry become alive when they become an integral part of a biological system. Thus Physics, Chemistry, and Biology are complementary and when they converge they become alive. And today we realize more than ever the need for complementary understanding and hence inter-disciplinary research is the order of the day.[28]
Our scientific research should ultimately help us discover ourselves. We have, individually and collectively as well as nationally and internationally, discovered so many and so much – We have landed on the Moon and we could land our instrument on the Mars and even have made inroads to the Sun – We begin to understand the possibility of living conditions in the Mars, but we have not made as much attempt nor efforts to understand our next door fellow human beings to live in peace and harmony.
We need to ask ourselves: Why is there hunger and disease in the world? Are we searching for knowledge or meaning in life? Are we looking at the goal of success in our research or the process of a system that makes us keep going with happiness and enthusiasm? While discussing the recent trends in Physical sciences, let us become the trendsetters. In the name of in-depth research we concentrate on a tiny part of science but we need to make it clear that our research, in the light of harmony of the universe, is to make it useful and meaningful. A specialist, it is said, is one who knows more and more about less and less.
Conclusion:
Given the multi-reality, one wonders at the possibility of another universe. Our universe may be one of the many, physicists say. The scientists are now looking into the question of: Universe or Multiverse?[29] The possibility of a multiverse is raised by the theory of cosmic inflation. However, science, especially the laws of nature, would tell us how the universe behaves, but would not answer the why questions. Science may understand and explain the universe as a Grand Design but science may not indicate who the Grand Designer is. The Grand Designer, as most of us believe, is God.[30] And science has not said the final word!
To end my sharing on a lighter note, I just like to share with you a fantasy: Just imagine an ultramodern hospital with tele- or WhatsApp consultation, virtual beds, induction injections, wireless drips, transcendental medications, remote or robots-assisted operations, and online billing. Of course, the patients would be imaginary!
We need to make it clear to ourselves the purpose of our research. It is not to enhance our knowledge but to make it application-orientated for the betterment of the society. There should be industry-institution collaboration in our research process so that what we find in the lab could be meaningful and useful to our fellow human beings. We need to choose industries that put people before profit. All the best for your deliberations. Arul Anandar College has shaped a number of students and faculty members – I wish all success to this effort to disseminate information for the formation of people’s heart and life.
Francis P Xavier SJ
17Feb2022
[1] Spencer, J.B. Physical Science. Retrieved from https://www.britannica.com/science/physical-science/Ancient-Middle-Eastern-and-Greek-astronomy
[2] Xavier, F.P. (2021). The Fifth Dimension of the Universe – Emergence and Convergence. J. Intercultural Philosophy, 39, 48-61.
[3] Subatomic Aarticle Summary. Encyclopaedia Britannica. Retrieved from https://www.britannica.com/summary/subatomic-particle#:~:text=A%20third%20major%20group%20of,corresponding%20antiparticle%20(see%20antimatter).
[4] In 1928 Paul Dirac presented E = mc2 as E = ±mc2 (implying energy and negative energy). Cf Dirac Sea. Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dirac_sea
[5] Xavier, F.P. (2020). Implications of Dark Matter/Dark Energy to the Understanding of Reality. Omega XIX (1), 112-130. Cf. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aqpN7pz164Y
[6] Matter-Energy Content of the Universe. Encyclopaedia Britanica. Retrieved from https://www.britannica.com/science/physical-science/Developments-and-trends-of-the-20th-and-21st-centuries
[7] Power, C.S. (2013). The Possible Parallel Universe of Dark Matter, Retrieved from http://discovermagazine.com/2013/julyaug/21-the-possible-parallel-universe-of-dark-matter
[8] Drake, N. (2017), In a First, Gravitational Waves linked to Neutron Star Crash, https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2017/10/gravitational-waves-discovered-neutron-stars-pictures-science/#/01-neutron-star-merger.jpg
[9] Brush, S.G. Developments and trends of the 20th and 21st Centuries. Retrieved from https://www.britannica.com/science/physical-science/Developments-and-trends-of-the-20th-and-21st-centuries
[10] The term ‘big bang’ was coined in 1949 by Cambridge astro-physicist Fred Hoyle, who believed in a universe that expanded forever. In: Hawking, S. and Mlodinow, (2010). L. The Grand Design, London: Bantom Books, p.230.
[11] Hawking, S. and Mlodinow, (2010). L. The Grand Design, London: Bantom Books, p.230.
[12] The Temperature of the Universe during the Big Bang. Retrieved from https://sciencing.com/temperature-universe-during-big-bang-4822.html
[13] Manyahi, J.P. and Xavier, F.P. (2020). Implication of Quantum Logic to the Notion of Transcendence. Delhi: ISPCL, p.102.
[14] Xavier, F.P. (2006). God of the Atoms, Delhi: LIFE/ISPCK Pub, p. 20.
[15] Hawking, S. and Mlodinow, L. (2011). The Grand Design. London: Bantom Books, p.162.
[16] Black Hole, Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_hole#:~:text=A%20black%20hole%20is%20a,to%20form%20a%20black%20hole.
[17] How many Black Holes are out there in the Universe? Science Daily (2022 Jan 19). Retrieved from https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/01/220119155213.htm
[18] There is Light behind Black Hole: Astronomers detect first Bursts confirming Einstein’s Theory of Relativity. (2021). India Today, Retrieved from https://www.indiatoday.in/science/story/astronomers-detect-light-behind-black-hole-albert-einstein-theory-of-relativity-nasa-physics-1834665-2021-07-30
[19] Perley, D. (2022). Black Holes: Scientists think They’ve spotted the mysterious Birth of One. Retrieved from https://www.space.com/black-hole-birth-observation
[20] Mathewson, S. Researchers detect 1st merger between Black Holes with Eccentric Orbits. Retrieved from https://www.space.com/first-eccentric-black-hole-merger-detected
[21] Larkin, A. (2021). NASA probe is the first Spacecraft to ever enter the Sun’s Atmosphere. Retrieved from https://www.cbsnews.com/news/sun-atmosphere-nasa-solar-probe-first-spacecraft/
[22] Hahn, J. (Dec 2021). Living Robots evolve to procreate in ‘astounding’ scientific Breakthrough. Retrieved from https://www.dezeen.com/2021/12/06/living-replicating-robots-xenobots-3/
[23] Peterson, M. (Dec 2021).Scientists create the World’s first self-reproducing Robots. Retrieved from https://www.zmescience.com/science/scientists-create-the-worlds-first-self-reproducing-robots/
[24] Xavier, F.P. (2020). Implications of Dark Matter/Dark Energy to the Understanding of Reality. Omega XIX (1), 112-130.
[25]Firstenberg, A. (2020). The Invisible Rainbow: A History of Electricity and Life. USA: Chelsea Green Pub.
Also Cf: Becker, R.O. and Selden, G. (1998). The Body Electric: Electromagnetism and the Foundation of Life. USA: William Morrow Paperbacks.
[26] Xavier, F.P. (2021). Sharing: Jesuit Legacy. Chennai: Don Bosco Pub., p. 142.
[27] (2022). 5G Rollout is disrupting Flights to the US across the World: Here is why. Retrieved from https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/business/india-business/5g-rollout-is-disrupting-flights-to-the-us-across-the-world-here-is-why/articleshow/89012058.c
[28] Xavier, F.P. (2017). Physics and Chemistry in unravelling the Mysteries of Biology. Invited Talk delivered at Shibaura Inst. of Technology, Tokyo (Japan – 23Oct2017).
[29] Carr, B. (Ed). (2007). Universe or Multiverse? Cambridge: Cambridge Uni Press.
[30] Hawking, S. and Mlodinow, L. (2011). The Grand Design. London: Bantom Books, p.209nb.