One of my favorite things in the news is the discovery of the Higgs Boson. My layman’s understanding of the discovery is that scientists in Lucerne, Switzerland found, using the Large Hedron Supercollider, incontrovertible evidence that the Higgs field exists. Apparently, in its normal state, the Higgs exists as an energy field that gives other sub-atomic particles mass. What the scientists did was zap some matter with enough energy to force the Higgs to become a particle so they could detect and measure it. What they discovered and confirmed in a nutshell is this: space, even the best vacuum, is not empty. There is an energy field that permeates everything throughout the universe. But why should we be surprised at that? Many people throughout history already suspected as much. Now it can be measured.
In a related matter, one of the most popular and current theories in quantum mechanics is string theory. It suggests that at the smallest level, matter comes in and out of our world, possibly passing through as many as eleven dimensions. What amazes me is that this is what scientists are thinking–people who are trained to look only at the measurable data in front of them and figure out what is going on.
What does this mean? I can’t say, because I don’t know–nobody does. But I can say this, the matter in our bodies and in the world around us is affected by the Higgs field, and by whatever happens in the sub-atomic world, because we’re all made of atoms, and at that level, there are forces that behave radically different than the world we live in. Scientists are beginning to measure things that we suspected all along, that the world around us extends far beyond our ordinary senses. I look forward to hearing about what they find next. We already seem to have an idea where this might be heading.–R
