When I was about 10 years old, the breakdown of atoms into electrons and protons had been discovered. According to the knowledge of the day, these particles were the ultimate building blocks of all matter. Now, nearly 50 years later, we have uncovered a few more layers. Actually, the layers have reached the point where these atomic building blocks may or may not exist, depending on whether they are being observed or not (I think). Whatever.
Isaac Newton had the laws of motion all tied up, until scientists came along with a better slide rule, and noticed that some of the observations were not consistent with this. It took Einstein to explain this. Now we cannot explain all the motion and gravitation in our galaxy, so we think that Dark Matter makes up the difference. (I think that Dark Matter is another way of saying that we do not know and we are waiting for Einstein Mark II.)
As you can tell, I do not understand any of this anymore. Perhaps mankind was not meant to understand it. (I certainly was not meant to understand this). We were meant to discover this, of course. Each layer of discovery leads later to more unknowns. Unlike the onion, whose layers unpeel, but eventually come to and end, before being chopped up and eaten in a Fish, Prawn and mash potato pie, or ending up on my kitchen floor, these layers will never come to an end.
God is having a joke with us. He can keep this up for ever. We are meant to look for these secrets. These discoveries are captivating. In doing so, we are meant to realise that we will never find the end of this path, as it has no end. God made it this way.
Chicago's 81-storey Aqua hotel and residence has recently won the Emporis Award for best skyscraper of 2009. (Have a look on Google.) I have not seen any awards yet for the Best Universe of the Year.
Each discovery is heralded as the ultimate piece of knowledge to unlock the secrets of the universe. The next scientist should announce his discovery as “This takes our knowledge of the universe from 0.0021% to 0.0022%”. Not much of a headline there for the Scientists International Conference.
Perhaps the universe only exists if it is being observed. Creepy.
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