Higgs Boson alert

So I’m feeling a little anti-climatic about the Higgs Boson.  I’m on high google alert (code red of course) for the confirmation that this elusive “God particle” exists.  There are hints, there are murmurs and there are numerous emails alerting me to this fact.  I am pins and needles sitting on the edge of my seat waiting for someone, anyone, to say “yes we have found it.”  This spec of dust that begat everything, all the stars and the universe and the very matter that makes us what we are.  Of course, this is just proof that Einstein was right.  E=MC squared (couldn’t find a little 2 to put up there).  From nothing, something can come.  From energy, matter can be made.  This Higgs Boson particle is the existence of the nothing that made the big bang.  

I don’t pretend to know what I’m talking about or even what they’re talking about.  I have forever been fascinated by space and the realm of possibility that there are otherworldly things of which I know nothing.  I cannot even comprehend string theory.  Look it up if you dare.  But what I do enjoy is the search, that desire to dissect and understand our very existence.  I’m not a religious person, but I do believe in things beyond the universe I can see.

So, what happens after Higgs Boson?  Michio Kaku believes we will then look for dark matter.  That invisible net that binds the planets and the stars together.  We are hurtling toward nothingness, but what does it matter anyway?  We only have this brief period of time here.  Then what?  I’m not sure.  I’d like to believe in another universe, in another time, I will be me just smarter.  I won’t return that phone call, I won’t go on that date, but I will still end up where I am.  Content in what I am contributing to the universe.  Content in the love that surrounds me like an invisible dark matter binding my soul and my heart.

So after the Higgs Boson discovery, I will be excited for the next thing and the thing after.  Because I want to know. I want to believe this all means something.

Michio Kaku

So last night I went to see a lecture by Michio Kaku.  I could bore you with his advanced theories of the universe and life itself, or I could just let you find him on your own.  Let me also take this moment to expose myself a true blue dork.  I love science.  A total geek.  Proudly flying my nerd flag.  I especially love space and physics even though I understand approximately 10% of it.  

I am a Higgs Boson groupie.  I love everything about it.  I watched the documentary “Atom Smashers”, not once, but three times.  I devour theories of life and the universe like some people do celebrity gossip.  These people, these brainiacs who wildly dream of what might be while awake, are my superstars (no pun intended).  They theorize about the beginnings of us all and dare to believe we can travel beyond what we know.  They don’t just ask why, they ask what if.  

Michio Kaku has been on numerous television shows and I’ve always been a fan.  It was like the Beatles were visiting, when I waited for the lecture to be over and for him to enter the small room where we sat for an off the cuff question and answer session.  If you’ve never heard him lecture, he’s funny and approachable and most of all brilliant.  He’s not just smart, he’s wicked “smaht.”  

It all makes sense when he talks.  He makes you question the world around you, the reality of what is.  His best analogy was of life itself being a bathtub filled with bubbles.  Our universe, the only one we know of, being one of millions of bubbles in the bath.  Who knows what lurks around us.  If there are mirror universes or parallel dopplegangers maybe someday our ancestors will know who they are.  Until then, we can dream of what might be and be reminded how really amazing it is we exist at all.

If you’re not familiar with Dr. Kaku’s work, then you must google him immediately.