Deep Down Under

From the science files

So yeah, I've used some pretty high-level science here. In this part I'll try to simplify the concepts as much as I can and at the same time separate the fact from fiction.

Schrodinger's Cat: Believe it or not, it is possible for one particle to have multiple states(position, momentum, spin etc) at once. The best way to explain it is given in the book. Imagine a bowl of poison in a chamber along with a cat. You lock the chamber and arrive the next day, you can't see inside it unless you open the door/gate/whatever. Before you open it, there's a fifty-fifty chance that the cat is dead or alive. And when you do, you only see one state. Same thing in quantum mechanics: A particle is at both states before observation. This is pretty annoying cause when you observe in QM, you actually change the state of the particle, which...kind of beats the purpose in the first place.

String Theory: What String Theory basically predicts is that particles as we know them are not zero-dimensional as thought of before. 3-D means height, length and breadth, 2-D is length and breadth, 1-D is just length and yeah, 0-D is nothing, just a dimensionless point in space-time. As I was saying, in String Theory, particles are actually 1-D strings which have different vibrations. These strings vibrate at different frequencies to produce different properties for different particles. 

Extra Dimensions: As mind-blowing as it may seem, extra-dimensions are theoretically real. Imagine you're a bird flying sky-high and you look at some telephone lines down below. What you'll see is a 1-D line. But you want to check it out so you soar down and find that it's now a very thin and long rectangle go even further and you'll see that it's a cylindrical wire. What happens in extra-dimensions is that if you go even further. You might find a fourth physical dimension. No, I'm not talking about time which is a temporal dimension, I'm talking about a spatial dimension. It would too complex for our brains to comprehend as we're used to seeing 3-D objects in our everyday world. This process of magnifying to view more dimensions is called 'dimensional unfurling' and can go up to TEN spatial dimensions.

At first, physicists doubted the practicality of 'dimensional unfurling' but later some of them proposed that if the LHC (which is a big-damn atom smasher in Geneva in case you didn't know) built by CERN could produce a mini black hole it would be indirect evidence for extra-dimensions. Why? Because gravitons (which are the force-carrier particles of gravity) would probably escape into these extra-dimensions which explains why gravity is so weak. *Cough* Weak? No, it wasn't a typo. Gravity is the weakest of the forces. Just imagine, you have two magnets one in your hand and the other attached to it. That little magnet is defying the gravitational pull of the ENTIRE EARTH. 

Space-time: This one's probably the easiest to understand. Imagine that the universe is like a fabric and all the planets are on it. Due to their mass they warp that fabric. Something like this:

So yeah, the warp causes any nearby object to get attracted to it and start revolving. It has three spatial dimensions (length, breadth and height) and one temporal (time) dimension. This fabric is called space-time so not only should it affect space but also time. The temporal effect is pretty amazing. The rate of time literally slows down, imagine that you are near something seriously heavy. For you time would pass normally but to someone aloof of that effect (an outside observer) he would see that you're moving really slow. Your one second would probably be his one minute. 

Premontions: This theory here is my own, so it is probably wrong. What it basically is is that the universe is a timeline. Just imagine the three spatial dimensions of space-time and the arrow of time. If you specify all the coordinates (x,y,z and time) you have an event. Now, if the brain gets an additional boost from dark energy or dark matter, it could access this 'timeline' enabling the person to view the future. Wait! So does that mean that the future is written before by God? Nah! Remember Schrodinger's Cat? What if there's a probability of that particular event taking place? So it all depends on your luck. Bingo champions! Feeling lucky?By the way that would mean that event could take place in a parallel universe. If you want to know more about it, check out @thebooknebula s story titled 'Alphatown'. He delves more into that topic. 

Dark Energy and Dark Matter: We know nothing about it, and nobody does anyway, so we're not afraid to admit it. All that we know is that Dark Energy and Dark Matter make up 67% and 29% respectively. Dark Energy expands the universe while Dark Matter contracts it. Nobody knows what it is made up of. Most of it is merely speculation at this point. Some propose a particle called WIMPs (lol). It is the acronym for Weakly Interacting Massive Particle. 'Weak' doesn't mean that it interacts less, it means that it only interacts through the weak nuclear force, which is the force that cause particles to decay into others. While another is MACHOs (physicists are really good when it comes to making swag acronyms). It stands for Massive Compact Halo Object. Another is axion. You can find more about them online. So far, the most'accurate' theory is the annihilation of virtual particles in quantum foam. No, virtual particles aren't the stuff that makes up your video games. An easy way of understanding them is like this: Imagine that you're at your local cafe and you order a cup of coffee with extra foam. You can think of the foam as quantum foam and the bubbles as virtual particles popping in and out of existence. Something like this:

These virtual particles actually play an important role in our lives. Whenever you walk or touch something, the electrons at the edge of your hand and the object exchange virtual photons which cause them to repel. So that you don't create a nuclear explosion (teehee). 

Negative Energy: This one's the mother of all the above. The very existence of the human race could depend on it (how? You'll see). Remember when I talked about space-time and how objects with mass create warps? Well, imagine something with a mass less than zero. That's right. Negative mass. It's practically pixie dust for humans. The warp create by something like that would be opposite to that of normal stuff. 

It has the opposite effects of positive mass. It repels instead of attracting. It can move faster than the speed-of-light. It. Can. Travel. Back. In. Time. The time dilation effect will be totally opposite. It can only be found when black holes spew out matter. Want to know more? Check out our Facebook page 'The Unknown' or our website.

And then there's history...