Now
that I'm even tinier, I'm astounded by the fact that that blob of an
atom—that Greek “fundamental” building block—is mostly
nothing! It is mostly empty! It is just as if I were many trillion
times larger—big enough to allow me to take in the whole of our
solar system—I'd also see that it is mostly empty space... mostly
nothing. There's the heavy sun (comprising some 99% of the solar
system's mass) sitting at the center, while the insubstantial planets
revolve way out there, through mostly empty space. So much vacuum! So
much void!
And
that's what the atom is like! To me—who is now a few billion times
smaller than when I began this adventure—this ever-so-minuscule
atomic nucleus can be seen to be surrounded by a cloud of electrons.
Virtually all the “substance” of the atom (just like the solar
system) is contained within that tiny, central ball of protons and
neutrons. The atom turns out to be 99% nothing! It's mostly
empty space. In fact, the whole universe is mostly empty
space! All matter—even the tree and the bird—is primarily a
vacuum, with its vanishingly small nuclei scattered so far apart,
that my tiny self can see only the closest atom. It's lonely down
here!
But
it gets even more amazing. In the last century or so scientists have
delved ever deeper into the atom. Now they know that those protons
and neutrons—the tiny things that contain virtually all of the
atom's mass—are not unimaginably dense lumps of matter, but are
themselves constituted from even smaller particles. Is there
no end to it all? Maybe not.
Inside
each proton and neutron in that nucleus is a trio of yet smaller
particles. Yes, each proton and neutron is made up of three even
tinier building blocks called quarks. Quarks are truly weird
things that come in several varieties, to which quantum physicists
have given eccentric names such as up, down, charm, top, bottom,
and strange. It's as if this sub-subatomic world is so bizarre
that scientists have given up trying to come up with sober names, but
have let themselves go bonkers in this Alice-in-Wonderland fantastic
world.
Well,
I've shrunk a few billion times by now, so why not go a few hundred
times more and see what a quark looks like? Dwindling even more, I
peer inside the nearest proton. But maybe I've gone too far this
time: I spot three sort of solid-looking entities that I take to be
quarks, but the whole scene is pulsing and dancing. In addition to
the bizarre trio of quarks, I see a soup of fuzzy things that look
sort of like quarks, but are continually appearing and disappearing.
Right before my eyes, things come into existence and then just as
quickly pop out of existence! It's all unstable and causing me
to feel a little nauseous.
Physicists
on the cutting edge of quantum physics tell us that these exotic
states of matter confound even them. It's a hotbed of current
research that is so bizarre that it seems unreal. At these quantum
levels matter is almost not matter. In fact, it's bubbling
energy fields wherein we begin to lose all distinctions between
matter and energy, as these particles slip in and out of existence or
from one form of existence to another. Yikes!
My
infinitesimal eyes are tired and blurry. My infinitesimal head is
spinning, as if I too were popping in and out of reality. I close my
eyes and, like Alice, take a pill and swell back up to my original
size.
The
bird has flown away, but the tree is still there—solid and
substantial as can be. Whew! Gone is my fanciful ability to observe
the quarks, protons, electrons, nuclei, atoms, and molecules. I'm
back to my colorful and more sane world. Ooh, a bright red cardinal
just flew in! Lying back, I let the hot water soften me a little
more, as I thrill to my macroscopic, gorgeous world. Welcome home.
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