Alex joined Dr. Nevarro at the Berkeley trails in the hills, after the Professor finished up his work at the Berkeley University. They settled down on some logs overlooking the bay and started to chat.
“Thanks for sparing some time to meet. I am still surprised you accepted my request so quickly”, Alex said.
(Dr Nevarro smiled.) I knew your father. He was a major donor to the science program of my school. In a strange way, it was those crazy school projects I did then (with your dad’s funding) that led me here 10 years later. When I saw your e-mail, I thought it was a good way to return the favor. Did you have a nice flight from New York?
“Oh, yeah”, (said Alex, thinking fondly of his dad, who had died a few years earlier.).
So, what brings a CEO from Wall street to Berkeley?, he joked. Don’t tell me you are going to buy out the university (he laughed)
(Alex told him about the treasure hunt and the plans made at the roundtable. )
Hmm…fascinating. And you believe you will find some answers here?
“Well..I need to know what the science of the universe is telling us. And what better place than the Berkeley Center for Theoretical physics to get some genuine answers.”
Well, the centre for Theoretical physics opened in Berkeley in 2000 – it has been home to some of the greats in this field – like Paul Oppenheimer, Weinberg, Schwarz and Green. In this field, there is a lot of math, a lot of theory, a lot of debate…(he laughed). So, you’d want to tread carefully.
“My questions are really fundamental. The stuff we see around us everyday – is this all there is to the universe? What is the nature of this universe? What is it made of ultimately? Where did it come from? What forces are at work? Have we understood what the fundamental building block of nature is?”
(Dr. Nevarro’s eyes swept across the bay). You ask the same questions that were asked very long ago. The questions are old, some would even say ancient; But it is a very interesting time in history. All the answers we have got so far seem to be converging on one grand theory. You can read about it in the book by Dr. Greene, or on the PBS site but I will try and give you a gist of the findings.
“Really? You mean, we have figured it all out?” (Alex was excited).
Well..It is a bit like those Sherlock Holmes detective novels. We have the universe. We are in it. We can see it right now. Call it the scene of the crime. First, we look around the scene with instruments like Sherlock Holmes would – with a magnifying glass, for clues. Using the clues, we come up with a theory that can explain the crime. Then, we test the theory by seeing if we can use it to reconstruct all the events that led to it.
“Now, that’s easy to follow. So, please continue.”
Let’s look at the crime scene from three locations – the normal, the very large and the very small. Ok?
“Sure. By normal, you mean, our day to day world?”
Yes. Our day to day world is a world of 4 dimensions.
Left and right;
Back and forth;
Up and down;
Before and after;
Together we call them space-time.3 dimensions of space and 1 dimension of time.
“Wow. Ok. Sounds simple. Go on.”
Now, let’s go to a different perspective and look at the very large.
When we look at the night sky, using our version of a small magnifying glass – the Hubble telescope, we can expect to see more than 100 billion galaxies. To give you a feel for how big this is, within our own galaxy, there are about a 100 billion stars, and just one of them happens to be the Sun, which is about 90 million miles away. In fact, the Sun itself is so far away from us, that its light takes about 8 minutes to reach the earth.
“This is one seriously big perspective of the crime scene!”
Yeah. You could say that..and this is just what we can see with one magnifying glass – the hubble telescope.
“What keeps all this in its place?”
Well, put simply, the force of Gravity.
“The same one that Newton found in the ‘normal’ world?”
Yeah. Newton found out that the force that makes apples fall to the ground was the same force that keeps planets and stars moving in orbit. He kind of arrived at the first principle that unified the earthly and the heavenly – gravity. To him, space was like a flat sheet. Things moved from point to point. The fastest way to reach from one point to another is through a straight line. This is the crime scene that Newton was looking at; and his theory fitted the bill.
“So, we have one clue to the puzzle of the fundamental principle.”
Yes, but Newton did not know how gravity worked. That part was figured out by Einstein.
“I didn’t know Einstein worked on Gravity.”
In fact, he made the biggest breakthrough on gravity. He proved that gravity is not a mysterious force that acts magically over long distances.
Gravity is just the effect of large masses warping space-time. Space-time is not like a flat sheet, but rather like a trampoline.
Heavy masses like the sun, create a dent in the trampoline. Because of the dent they create in space-time, smaller objects like the earth, follow a deviated path in orbit – like a car going around a rubber sheet. We are the apple falling in the night sky, not because the sun is pulling us to it, but because that is the only path we can take, given the huge warp the sun has made in the rubber sheet. This is the world that Einstein saw..and his theory explained the crime scene – at the level of stars and galaxies.
“Crazy, but I guess that explains everything.”
Not so fast. Now, we get to the third perspective of the crime scene – the very small; the scene of atoms and smaller particles like electrons, protons etc.
Now, in the world of the very small – that is atoms, light, electrons – space and time are totally distorted. Here, things act absolutely crazy. Particles appear and disappear out of nowhere, for no apparent reason. Particles appear from energy and energy appears from particles; all the time. Scientists were discovering some new particle or the other every month. In this world, nothing can be said with certainty. Everything is a matter of probability. This world plays by an entirely different set of rules. This is the world of Quantum mechanics.
This is the crime scene that Neils Bohr saw..and his theory explained the crime scene – at the level of atoms and subatomic particles. At this level, we encounter two new forces – a strong force (that holds the nucleus together) and a weak force (which is responsible for radioactive decay).
“Hmm… so there are 3 forces overall in nature? Gravity, strong force and weak force?”
Well, let us not forget electricity and magnetism. Scientists kept thinking they were separate forces, till a guy called Maxwell came up with one set of equations saying they are both related. That is when it was called electro-magnetism. That is what makes your TV screen on earth misbehave during a thunderstorm. Electromagnetism is several 1000 billion times stronger than gravity. You can easily fight earth’s gravity and pick up your car keys off the ground even with a small magnet.
“OK. So, we now have gravity, electromagnetism, strong force, weak force as the four fundamental forces in the universe. We also have 3 dimensions of space and 1 dimension of time.”
Correct. Now, the problem is this. Quantum mechanics gave equations that unified 3 forces – electromagnetism, strong force and weak force. But it could not explain gravity. Similarly, Einstein’s General relativity explained Gravity at the level of the cosmos, but it does not explain the other 3 forces that work at the level of atoms. But you can’t have one science for stars and one science for atoms.
So, these two theories – General relativity and Quantum mechanics were both perfect separately – but like star-crossed lovers, could never come together. What is worse, they create absolute nonsense when combined together. Both can’t be right at the same time.
Thus began a quest to create a single theory that explains all forces, in all places, in all sizes, in all directions, in all time periods.
That is the quest that has now led us to String theory – possibly the most exciting or the stupidest theory of science ever to come in the 21st century.
Only time will tell.
“Why do you say that?”
According to modern science, the universe is not ultimately made of all these small particles, like billiard balls. Instead, at the most fundamental level there is just 1 single ingredient – tiny bands of vibrating energy that we call strings. When the string stretches, contracts, wiggles and vibrates in different ways, each wiggle is like a musical note – that produces a different type of particle with mass, charge, gravity and so on.
“What??”
Yup. The universe is like a big guitar. Everything we see, everywhere, every force in the universe, like gravity, electricity, all matter, everywhere, earth, buildings, atoms, galaxies are just different musical notes playing a grand musical symphony
You can call it God’s guitar show, if you like.
“This is crazy. Sounds like an acid trip to me.”
(laughing). No one could do the math for this, if they were on acid. But yeah, it is indeed the most radical theory in the history of science.
If the theory is right, it brings together all the forces of nature and all particles in nature – across the very large, the normal and the small, but it comes at a price.
“Which is?”
According to the latest refined version of the Theory, created just 15 years ago, called M-theory, the theory gives us a picture of a Universe not with 3 dimensions of space, but 11 dimensions.
“What???”
The 11th dimension even allows a string to stretch to act like a membrane, a surface. A membrane can stretch and grow even as large as an universe.
In fact, our whole universe could just be on one membrane like a slice – just one slice – in a larger loaf of bread.
The loaf may have other slices right next to us – in fact, parallel universes.
“Parallel universes? What the !@$!@$. Sorry. But…can they ever meet?”
Good question. According to the theory, membranes do meet – in fact, membranes from different dimensions can collide quite regularly.
(Alex held his breath). “What happens when they meet?”
All that energy gets released in a big event.
We just call it the ‘Big Bang’.
Our own universe must have come into existence starting then – just because two membranes happened to collide.
“But what does all this mean? Is this the final theory? The perfect one? It appears to explain so many things – from the very large to the very small.”
Well, the problem with the theory is it is perfect, but only in maths. It can neither be proved nor disproved with experiments, using the current equipment that we have. Strings are extremely small – much smaller than even protons and electrons.
“We can’t prove any of this?”
In early western civilizations, there were only philosophers – like Aristotle, Plato and Socrates. Philosophy literally means a love(philo) for wisdom(sophia). Science was a daughter of philosophy. It demanded objective proof, evidence. Today, our search for wisdom has finally led us to a scientific theory that appears complete. But it does not have any objective proof. In short, it is just philosophy.
Yeah. It is the hottest find of the 21st century. All of a sudden, Cambridge, Princeton, Harvard, CalTech, Michigan, Berkeley, Columbia, Stanford, FermiLab, MIT, CERN are all crawling with String theory researchers. For the first time in history, we have a theory that can explain and unite all forces, all particles, all phenomena- right from the very small to the normal and the very large.
But all these scientists go on nothing else but belief that ‘this is it’. They feel it in their bones. The math is beautiful and it is all falling in place – but there is no proof. Perhaps one day, the evidence will start to appear. Till then, all we can do is wait and hope.
“Are you saying that the most complete theory in science today is just a philosophy?”
Yeah…funny isn’t it. God’s guitar music is finally being heard by Mathematicians, and they are not able to prove it.
(An hour later, Dr Navarro said good-bye and headed back to his lab. Alex remained in the spot, reflecting on all he had heard. It really seemed an elegant universe; but somehow its essence had to be felt, not just thought about. He wondered if he could ever do it.
Time passed and Alex was still lost in thought. He looked up at the night sky. It was beautiful and star-lit. He then realised, that the star light he was seeing was light that left the star millions of years ago and was reaching him only now.
This is beautiful.
The farther you see in the night sky, the further back in time you see, all the way till the beginning of this universe.
Sitting there, right then, he saw the past and the present together, all in one place, at one time.
He felt a strange sense of belonging – as if in a timeless drama.
And then his phone rang.)
“Hello”, he said
Hi, we haven’t met. I used to teach Physics at Berkeley. I was speaking with Dr Navarro on the phone this morning and he told me about your quest.
“Hey, thanks. I look forward to exploring this more. Can we meet? Are you in California?”
Well..i am actually in India. I left Berkeley 10 years ago to pursue my meditation practice.
“Meditation? But why?”
Well..It is a long story. After many years of struggling with string theory, I happened to meet a guy on a plane to the CERN labs in Geneva. I believe he is a mutual friend.
He is the one you call the urban monk.
(Alex’s head was spinning).
He convinced me that meditation is as effective a way as science to discover the fundamental essence of this universe
“Science and meditation? But they are so different. How can they point to the same thing?”
(He laughed). Yeah. I asked him the same question 10 years ago; and he replied
“You can either explore what nature originally was
Or you can explore what your own original nature is
Both will reveal the same fundamental essence.
One is a journey taken in the nature outside
The other is a journey taken in the nature within
How can they reveal two different truths?
There can’t be two different original natures.”
(Alex was stunned). “And did you make progress?”
Yeah. But only after he explained to me the cosmic dance of Shiva in Geneva.
“Cosmic dance in Geneva? Geez. My head is still buzzing from the cosmic guitar show. I don’t think I can handle any more of this.”
Haa haa..that is ok. You will get used to it. After understanding the dance, I learnt to see through the various layers of reality one by one, as clearly as I saw molecules in the lab.
“I would love to meet up and know more. I am due to visit India shortly, to catch up with my colleague Jamie. By the way, I don’t know your name.”
My friends call me “the fox“, (he said).
There are 2 ways or paths for getting to the truth…one is the ascending path and the other the descending (simple right) which is called the Arohana & Avarohana … folks familiar with carnatic music can connect with this.
The ascending path is tedious and misleeding compared to the descending one. For example what is the chance of taking a quick or a safe path along the hill ? Is it better when going up or when coming down ? (presuming the effort needed is the same for both ). It is better when we are coming down or avorohana … for we can see the pitfalls and the entire stretch is visible. The vedic scriptures recommend the descending path as the most perfect for knowing the truth … Science is arohana so it takes time and can be misleeding. The science journey we see here reminds me of that. UM where do you get the inspiration for these ? Am waiting to see how the dots are getting connected…
Hi Prasanna,
thanks for sharing what you learnt. Do consider what i have to say. If it makes sense and is helpful, use it.
All paths are merely paths.
Paths neither ascend nor descend
It is we who do.
We ascend with lofty motives
and descend with doubt and confusion.
Whatever path you are on,
Don’t give up too easily
Dont declare success too early.
But bravely walk the path you are on
Without comparing it with the paths you left unexplored.
Once the goal is sighted, all paths are made irrelevant
I wish you a very enjoyable adventure. And as for my inspiration, it is you, my reader :)
Strangely enough, reading your posts always get me gone contemplative. Thank you guy. Tonight was too bad for me and a read of yours just turned things around.
Yo Monk!
A masterpiece…. iam sure that the best is yet to come.
Cheersssss….
you can read the metaphysics section of the undermentioned book which can be read online on books.google.co.in
Jainism: an Indian religion of salvation
By Helmuth von Glasenapp, Shridhar B. Shrotri
jainism states that jain tirthankar on attaining nirvana/keval gyan(full knowledge) has seen that the universe is made up of six basic elements 1)Jiva(soul)qualities:knowledge and pure bliss 2)Pudgal(non-living matter) qualities :constantly appear-stay -transform/disappear 3)dharmastikay(motion) quality:providing a medium for movement-like water for fish
4)adharmastikay (gravity) quality : providing a medium for stillness 5) Akash(space) quality: providing space for all other five elements 6)Kal (time)
Thanks for sharing, Rajesh. Can you provide a link for people who wish to learn more about this?