I’ve had so much books news going on lately that I’ve neglected to update you all on any science news. My longtime followers know that I’ve been very interested in the progress of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) and the discovery of the Higgs boson, also called the God Particle. For new readers, some back articles about this topic include what the God Particle is, LHC creates primordial matter, and disproving Einstein.
Well, I reported back in July how scientists “discovered” the God Particle. Awesome news! So the face of physics and what we know about the world has changed, right? Ummm, not exactly. Subsequent analysis of the particle has not found any evidence to say it isn’t the God Particle (how’s that for a double negative!). And earlier this month, CERN shut down the LHC for two years for scheduled maintenance (imagine if your car maintenance took that long!).
Don’t worry, though. Even though there won’t be any subatomic particles smashing together at the LCH for awhile, I’ve still got some mind-bending news to report. Recent calculations regarding the Higgs Boson indicate that in tens of billlions of years, another alternate universe will expand far enough out that it will reach our universe, which will then disappear in a catastrophic event. And it will happen at the speed of light…how’s that for a Big Bang!
But don’t worry about that either. We’ll be long gone before then…and not just you and me and our grandchildren. The whole Earth will be gone when the sun burns out in another five billion or so years!
That was most sobering.
Certainly puts things in perspective!
Good to know we don’t have to deal with this immediately! 😀
Yeah, I’d hate to have to add end of the world to my to-do list!
Why am I reminded of the scene from Woody Allen’s Annie Hall, where his mother takes him to a psychiatrist when he’s still a boy because he refuses to do his homework after finding out the universe is expanding? Woody (the boy) says, “what’s the point?” and the cigar-chomping psychiatrist (those were the days…) says that it won’t happen for a long long time…
Maybe because thinking about this is more than my little mind can do.
LOL! I just learned that the universe is actually expanding faster than previously thought…I’ve really got to stop watching the How the Universe Works series…it totally makes my brain hurt!
Awesome! Love the science-y stuff 🙂 Definitely adding this to my list of things to not worry about though–let’s just hope the earth makes it until the sun explodes at this point (there are times when I wonder…).
I figured you’d appreciate this post, Meradeth. I think I will be a physicist in my next life.
I love the discoveries they are making. My next WIP is dealing with time anomalies. They give storytellers so much to work with. 😉
Have you read about Magnetic Reversal? Makes for interesting supposition/theories. 🙂
I did hear the sun would be expanding and envelop our planet in just a few billion years. So, best get writing. hehe.
It all seems rather far off, when I am still trying to get my head around next week’s calendar!
It really is an exciting time in science right now. I know there’s a story in me somewhere that will tap into all this interest I have in the universe. I just have to find it…hopefully before the universe ends!
I have not heard of Magnetic Reversal…or if I have, not by that term. I’ll have to check it out. Okay, off to get that writing done before it all expands and *poof* is gone!
Food for thought, Katie.
Certainly is!
Nice post. I liked it. But then again, in the past few days hasn’t there been more news about the Higgs-Boson? Some sort of indications that rather than the earth, the universe might end with a whimper…if it’s all going to come to an end, then I wonder whether I should worry about paying the IRS…
Thanks, Stan! Glad you enjoyed it. Well, it will all come to an end eventually…whimper or bang…probably not soon enough to get out of the whole tax thing, though! 🙂
Interesting stuff Katie. I find it hard to believe they would shut the lab down for 2 whole years, but I imagine maintenance there is on a much grander scale!
Yeah, two years does seems like a long time, but everything about the LHC has been big (except for the particles they smash!).