In this article, we learn about three significant discoveries that have shaped our understanding of the universe. Firstly, black holes were predicted by Karl Schwarzschild, and the discovery of Cygnus X-1 in 1971 changed physicists’ perception of them. Secondly, quantum theory shows us that particles can behave as waves and waves as particles, and this strange dual nature of fundamental constituents is the foundation of the universe. Finally, the Big Bang theory states that the universe began in a hot, dense state and has been expanding and cooling ever since. Evidence for the Big Bang is present in the universe’s afterglow, which appears today as microwaves. Although the Big Bang theory is beyond doubt, it requires other factors to make it work, such as dark matter and dark energy. Despite this theory’s success, fundamental questions remain unanswered, such as what was the Big Bang, what drove it, and what happened before it.
Marcus Chown, a science writer, has simplified the complexities of the universe into easy-to-digest pieces of information. He breaks down the mysteries of the universe into manageable chunks that anyone can comprehend. Chown explains that the traits that enable organisms to compete successfully for scarce food resources and survive to reproduce become more common with each successive generation. Darwin’s theory of natural selection proposes that creatures produce far too many offspring to be supported by the available food. Only those with the traits required to outcompete others for food will survive to reproduce and pass on those traits to the next generation.
The mechanism of variation and the mechanism of inheritance were two key ingredients missing from Darwin’s theory. Chown’s explanation of Darwin’s theory compares humans artificially selecting horses for speed to the natural selection of wild creatures for compatibility with their environment. Chown’s explanation offers a straightforward idea that came to Charles Darwin after his five-year stint as a ship’s naturalist on board HMS Beagle. Thomas Huxley, Darwin’s friend and champion, said, “How extremely stupid not to have thought of that,” when he heard the idea. Chown simplifies the mysteries of the universe for anyone who is baffled by black holes or confused by quantum theory.
Unraveling the Mysteries of the Universe
Marcus Chown, a science writer, breaks down the mysteries of the universe into manageable chunks that anyone can comprehend. In his latest work, Chown explains how both the mechanism of variation and the mechanism of inheritance are related. The building block of all life is the cell, a tiny bag of gloop packed with molecular machines. Each cell contains a mini cell or nucleus that has chromosomes made of deoxyribonucleic acid, or DNA. The traits we inherit from our parents are associated with stretches of the DNA known as genes. DNA replication is necessary for the inheritance of traits. However, mistakes can occur, and mutations can also be caused by ultraviolet light, viruses, cancer-causing chemicals, and nuclear radiation. These mistakes and mutations provide an array of new traits from which evolution by natural selection does its selecting.
The Role of Light in the Universe
Light is a wave like a ripple on a pond. At 16, Albert Einstein wondered what it would be like to ride alongside such a light wave. He realized it would appear not to be moving, just as a car travelling at 70mph would appear stationary if you drove alongside it at 70mph. But the Scots physicist James Clerk Maxwell’s theory of light said there was no such thing as a stationary light wave. Einstein, therefore, concluded that if catching a light wave would allow you to see something impossible, it too must be impossible. Light is uncatchable. In our universe, it plays the role of infinite speed, a speed that can never be reached.
The Oddity of Measuring Light’s Speed
Something travelling infinitely fast seems infinitely fast no matter how rapidly you are travelling because, compared with infinite speed, any other speed is so negligible it might as well be zero. Since light plays the role of infinite speed, everyone must, therefore, measure the same speed for a light beam. Now, speed is defined as the distance something travels in a given time – the car just mentioned, for instance, was travelling 70 miles in an hour. So, if everyone is to measure the same speed for light, no matter how fast they are moving, something odd must happen to their measurements of distance and time. There must be some huge cosmic conspiracy.
Chown simplifies the mysteries of the universe for anyone who is baffled by black holes or confused by quantum theory.
Understanding the Greenhouse Effect and Einstein’s Theory of Relativity
The Earth is able to maintain its temperature and sustain life due to several kinds of molecules present in the atmosphere that have the property of trapping heat given off from the surface. These molecules, including the most important heat-trapping molecule, water vapor, keep the planet from freezing solid. The phenomenon is known as the greenhouse effect, discovered by the American scientist Eunice Foote in 1856.
Foote found that water vapor and carbon dioxide warmed the most when she exposed glass tubes filled with gases to sunlight. This discovery was later confirmed by Irish physicist John Tyndall, who determined that water vapor and carbon dioxide are not heated directly by visible light from the sun but by heat in the form of invisible infrared light radiated by the Earth’s surface after it has been heated by the sun.
Infrared light is absorbed by simple molecules made of two or more atoms because the energy of such light is just right to set the molecules vibrating. The most abundant molecules in the atmosphere are nitrogen and oxygen, but they lack a crucial property known as a dipole moment and, therefore, do not absorb infrared light. Without the heat-trapping molecules present in the atmosphere, the Earth would be a giant ball of ice with an average temperature of -18C.
Einstein’s Special Theory of Relativity
At speeds approaching the speed of light’s 300,000 kilometers a second, there is a noticeable conspiracy that Einstein discovered. If someone were to fly past you at close to the speed of light, their time would slow, and their space would compress in the direction of their motion. This is Einstein’s special theory of relativity, where “moving clocks run slow” and “moving rulers shrink.” However, the conspiracy is noticeable only at speeds close to the speed of light, which is why it is not noticeable in daily life.
In conclusion, understanding the greenhouse effect and Einstein’s special theory of relativity is important to comprehend the mysteries of the universe. Eunice Foote and John Tyndall’s discoveries about the greenhouse effect and Einstein’s special theory of relativity changed our understanding of the world around us.
The Surprising Effect of Tiny Molecules on Climate
Eunice Foote and John Tyndall discovered in the 19th century that molecules such as water vapor and carbon dioxide can trap heat given off from the Earth’s surface. Without them, Earth would be a giant ball of ice. It was the Swedish chemist Svante Arrhenius who first suggested that an increase in carbon dioxide helped warm the Earth, and burning fossil fuels can create enough of it to create a “hot-house effect” or what we know today as the greenhouse effect. Arrhenius was the first to suggest that human activity can change the climate.
The Dual Nature of Particles and Waves
Light waves and particles such as electrons in atoms can behave as waves, and particles can behave as waves. Quantum theory explains the consequence of this strange dual nature. For instance, glass is not perfectly transparent, and most of the light passes right through it while a small portion is reflected back. But how is this possible if light is a stream of photons? Physicists have come to accept that an individual photon has a certain chance of being transmitted or reflected, leading them to abandon the idea of ever knowing for certain what a single photon will do.
A Concentrated Mass Creates a Bottomless Pit in Space-Time
A mass that is concentrated enough creates a bottomless pit in space-time from which nothing can escape, not even light.
Conclusion
The discoveries of Eunice Foote, John Tyndall, and Svante Arrhenius in the 19th century led to an understanding of how tiny molecules can have a significant impact on the Earth’s climate. Meanwhile, quantum theory explains the dual nature of particles and waves and how the universe is fundamentally unpredictable, but its unpredictability is predictable. Lastly, the existence of a bottomless pit in space-time from a sufficiently concentrated mass provides us with a better understanding of the mysteries of the universe.
The Discovery of Black Holes
In 1916, German physicist Karl Schwarzschild predicted the existence of black holes using Einstein’s recently presented theory of gravity. However, Einstein himself did not believe in the existence of black holes. For much of the 20th century, physicists believed that black holes were too ridiculous to exist, or if they did exist, they would be too small and black against the darkness of space to be observed.
But the discovery of a black hole in the star system Cygnus X-1 by British astronomers Paul Murdin and Louise Webster in 1971 changed everything. Matter ripped from a companion star by the gravity of the black hole swirled down through an “accretion disk,” heating up to millions of degrees and shining brilliantly as it did so. The discovery of Cygnus X-1, which represents the endpoint of the life of a massive star, showed that black holes were not too small to be observed but rather blindingly bright.
In 1963, Dutch astronomer Maarten Schmidt discovered quasars, beacons at the edge of the universe pumping out 100 times the energy of a normal galaxy. Eventually, it was realized that their prodigious luminosities derived from superheated matter swirling down though an accretion disk onto a black hole. Supermassive black holes, weighing tens of millions or even tens of billions of times the mass of the sun, are found at the center of every galaxy. However, scientists still do not know how they form or why they exist.
The Unpredictable World of Quantum Theory
Quantum theory, our best description of the submicroscopic world of atoms and their constituents, reveals the strange dual nature of the world’s fundamental constituents. At the start of the 20th century, a myriad of baffling experiments revealed that light waves could behave as particles and particles, such as the electrons in atoms, could behave as waves.
The consequence of waves behaving as particles is unpredictable. If you look out of a window, you will see the scene outside and a faint reflection of your face. Glass is not perfectly transparent, and most of the light passes through, while a small portion is reflected back, showing your face. But how is this possible if light is a stream of identical photons? Since they are identical, 100% should either be transmitted or reflected. Physicists had to give up on the idea of ever knowing for certain what a single photon would do.
All the denizens of the submicroscopic world, from electrons to atoms, are fundamentally unpredictable, and the universe is founded on random chance. However, what nature takes with one hand, it grudgingly gives back with the other. The universe may be fundamentally unpredictable, but its unpredictability is predictable. This is what quantum theory is – a recipe for predicting unpredictability.
The Birth of the Universe
The universe has not existed forever but was born about 13.82 billion years ago in a fireball called the Big Bang. The universe began in a hot, dense state and has been expanding and cooling ever since. All matter, energy, space, and even time erupted into being in the Big Bang.
Out of the cooling debris, galaxies, including our Milky Way, congealed. The universe contains approximately 2 trillion galaxies, but it is not known whether the universe will continue to expand forever or whether it will eventually collapse.
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Evidence for the Big Bang
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Afterglow of the Big Bang
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Bolt-ons to the Big Bang theory
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Unanswered questions about the Big Bang
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