STORM by Tim Minchin, 2008

An instant classic........Tim Minchins' masterfull performance "Storm" can be heard on his latest DVD... well worth ordering if you are a fan of sublime musicality and awe inspiring comedic irreverence.

Though not doing it justice, here is the transcript of this wonderfully sharp and witty poem....enjoy!

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Storm

Tim Minchin

In a North London top floor flat,
All white walls, white carpet, white cat.
Rice paper partition, Modern art And Ambition

The host's a physician,
Lovely bloke,
Has his own practice,
His girlfriend's an actress -
An old mate of ours from home,
And they're always great fun,
So to dinner we've come -

The fifth guest is an unknown,
The hosts have just thrown us
together for a favour.
The girl's just arrived from Australia,
And she's moved to North London,
And she's a sister of someone.
Or has - some connection.

As we make introductions,
I'm struck by her beauty,
She's irrefutably fair,
With dark eyes and dark hair.
But as she sits, I admit:
I'm a little bit wary,
As I notice the tip,
Of the wing of a fairy,
Tattooed on that popular area,
Just above the derrière,
And when she says "I'm Sagittarius!"

I confess, a pigeonhole starts to form,
And is immediately filled with pigeon,
When she says her name is *Storm*

Conversation is initially bright and light-hearted,
But it's not long before Storm gets started.

"You can't know anything.
Knowledge is merely opinion."

She opines over her Cabernet Sauvignon
Vis-à-vis,
Some unhappily empirical comment made by me.
Not a good start I think,
We're only on pre-dinner drinks,
And across the room my wife widens her eyes,
Silently begging me "Be nice!"

A matrimonial warning,
Not worth ignoring.
So,

I resist the urge to ask Storm,
Whether knowledge is so loose weave,
Of a morning, when deciding whether to leave,
Her apartment by the front door,
Or the window on the second floor.

The food is delicious,
And Storm whilst avoiding all meat,
Happily sits and eats,
As the good doctor slightly pissedly holds court on some anachronistic aspect of medical history.

When Storm suddenly insists:
"But the human body is a mystery
Science just falls in a hole
When it tries to explain the nature of the soul."

My hostess throws me a glance,
She, like my wife, knows there's a chance,
I'll be off on one of my rare, but fun, rants.
But I shan't, My lips are sealed,
I just want to enjoy the meal.

And although Storm is starting to get my goat,
I have no intention of rocking the boat,
Although it's becoming a bit of a wrestle,
Because, like her meteorological namesake,
Storm has no such concerns for our vessel.

Pharmaceutical companies are the enemy,
They promote drug dependency,
At the cost of the natural remedies,
That are all our bodies need,
They're immoral and driven by greed,
Why take drugs when herbs can solve it?
Why do chemicals when
Homeopathic solvents can resolve it?
I think it's time we all return to live,
With natural medical alternatives.

And try as I like,
A small crack appears in my diplomacy dyke.

By definition, (I begin)
Alternative medicine, (I continue)
Is either not been proved to work,
Or been proved, not to work.
Do you know what they call
'Alternative Medicine'
That's been proved to work?

-- Medicine


So you don't believe in any natural remedies?
On the contrary, Storm, actually,
Before we came to tea,
I took a natural remedy,
Derived from the bark of a willow tree.
It's a painkiller, virtually side-effect free.
It's got a, a weird name,
Darling, what was it again?
Maspirin?
Baspirin? Oh, yeah -
Aspirin!
Which I paid about a buck for,
Down at the local drugstore.

The debate briefly abates,
As my hosts collect plates.
But as they return with dessert,
Storm pertly asserts,
Shakespeare said it first:
There are more things in
Heaven and Earth,
Than exist in your philosophy
Science is just how we're trained, to look at reality,
It doesn't explain, Love or spirituality.
How does Science explain
Psychics, auras, the afterlife,
The power of prayer?

I'm becoming aware,
That I'm staring,
I'm like a rabbit suddenly trapped,
In the blinding headlights of vacuous crap.
Maybe it's the Hamlet,
She just misquoted,
Or the fifth glass of wine I just quaffed.
But my diplomacy dyke groans,
And the arsehole held back by its stones.
Could be held back no more.

Look up, Storm, So I don't need to bore ya,
But there's no such thing as an aura,
Reading auras is like reading minds,
Or tea leaves, or star-signs,
Or meridian lines.
These people aren't plying a skill,
They're either lying, or mentally ill.
Same goes for people who claim
To hear God's demands,
Spiritual healers who think
They've got magic hands.
By the way, why do we think it's okay,
For people to pretend they can talk to the dead?
Isn't that totally fucked in the head?
Lying to some crying woman whose child has died,
And telling me you're in touch with the other side?
I think that's fundamentally sick.
Do I need to clairify here,
That there's no such thing as a psychic?

What are we - fucking two?
Do we actually think that
Horton heard a Who?
Do we still believe that Santa brings us gifts,
That Michael Jackson didn't have facelifts?
Or are you still so stunned
by circus tricks,
That we think the dead would,
Wanna talk to pricks like John Edward?

Storm, to her credit,
Despite my derision
Keeps firing off cliches
With startling precision
Like a sniper using
Bollocks for ammunition.

You're so sure of your position,
But you're just close-minded,
I think you'll find that
Your FAITH in science and tests,
Is just as blind as the
faith of any fundamentalists,

Wow, that's a good point,
Let me think for a bit.
Oh wait, my mistake,
That's absolute bullshit.
Science adjusts its views
Based on what's observed.
Faith is the denial of observation,
so that belief can be preserved.

If you show me that, say,
Homeopathy works,
I will change my mind,
I will spin on a fucking dime.
I'll be as embarassed as hell,
Yet I will run through the streets yelling,
It's a MIRACLE!
Take physics and bin it!
Water has memory!
And whilst its memory
Of a long lost drop of onion juice is infinite,
It somehow forgets all the poo it's had in it.

You show me that it works,
And how it works,
and when I've recovered,
from the shock,
I will take a compass and carve
'Fancy That',
On the side of my cock.

Everyone's just staring now,
But I'm pretty pissed and I've dug this far down.
So I figure.. In for a penny, in for a pound!

Life is full of mystery, yeah,
but,
there are answers out there.
And they won't be found,
By people sitting around,
Looking serious,
And saying: Isn't life mysterious,
Let's sit here and hope,
Let's call up the fucking Pope,
Let's go on Oprah,
And Interview Deepak Chopra.

If you must watch telly,
you should watch Scooby-Doo,
That show was so cool!
Because every time
There was a church with a ghoul,
Or a ghost in a school,
They looked beneath the mask.
And what was inside?
The fucking janitor,
or the dude who ran the water slide!
Because,
throughout history,
every mystery
ever solved,
Has turned out to be -
Not Magic!

Does the idea that
there might be knowledge frighten you?
Does the idea that
one afternoon on Wiki-fucking-pedia
Might enlighten you,
Frighten you?
Does the notion that there might not be a supernatural,
so blow your hippy noodle,
that you'd rather just stand in the fog of your
Inability to google?

Isn't this enough?
Just,
this world?

Just this,
Beautiful,
Complex,
Wonderfully Unfathomable,
Natural World?

How does it so fail to hold our attention
That we have to diminish it
with the invention
of cheap man-made
myths and monsters?
If you're so into your Shakespeare,
Lend me your ear
To gild refined gold,
To paint the lily,
To throw perfume on the violet,
Is just fucking silly
Or something like that.
Or what about Satchmo?
I see trees of green,
Red roses too...

And fine, if you wish to,
Glorify Krishna and Vishnu,
In a post-colonial,
Condescending,
Bottled-up-and-labeled
kind of way,
Whatever, That's okay.

But, here's what gives me a hard-on,
I'm a tiny, insignificant
Ignorant bit of carbon.
I have one life,
And it is short and unimportant,
But thanks to recent scientific advances...

I get to live twice as long,
As my great-great-great-great
uncleses and auntses.

Twice as long!
To live this life of mine,
Twice as long,
To love this wife of mine.
Twice as many years,
Of friends, of wine,
Of sharing curries and getting shitty,
At good looking hippies,
With fairies on their spines,
And butterflies on their titties.

And if perchance, I have offended,
Think but this, and all is mended,

We'd as well be ten minutes back in time
For all the chance you'll change your mind.

Planck’s constant and black bodies

Physicists help explain the basics

In the early twentieth century, the deeper nature of matter was thought to be whole and continuous- much like water in a swimming pool. Even the merging of electromagnetism and thermodynamics, two of the eras greatest accomplishments in physics, supported this vision- or so it was assumed.

A looming complication though was that this wonderful fusion of electromagnetism and thermodynamics could not account for the phenomena observed in cavity radiation- better known as black body radiation. If you take an opened lidded box- even if the interior is painted white- and close the lid, the radiation (i.e.; light photons) bouncing around its interior will eventually be absorbed thereby causing the box to become “black”. You might ask- So what?

This phenomenon was the source of considerable consternation at the time and had to do with a common feature of matter that did not jibe a prediction derived from these theories. Jim Al-Khalili notes “All bodies emit radiation, and over the whole frequency range of the spectrum. The distribution over frequency depends on the body’s temperature. If a solid is hot enough it will glow visibly, but as it cools its glow will diminish as the longer wavelength radiation- beyond the visible- dominates. This does not mean that it ceases to emit visible light, but simply that the intensity of light will be too weak for us to see. Of course all matter also absorbs and reflects radiation falling on it. Which wavelengths are absorbed and reflected defines the colour of everything we see.”

In the latter 19^th and early 20^th centuries, it was assumed that emitted radiation from objects did so in a continuous and smooth way. According to what was known, you could turn the knob up or down and vary the frequency ad infinitum both ways.

Black bodies are efficient absorbers and distributors of radiation. According to Al-Khalili “Black bodies are so called because they are perfect absorbers of radiation and do not reflect any light or heat. Of course, a black body must somehow dispose of all the energy it absorbs- otherwise its temperature would become infinite!”

Physicists observed this similar phenomenon with any “cavity”, but could not account for it in their calculations- it was an empirical observation that didn’t fit in any existing formula. Kenneth Ford notes “scientists had learned a remarkable fact about this radiation: its properties depend only on the temperature of the walls, not on the material of which they are composed. Yet despite this marvelous simplification, all efforts to account for the way in which the intensity is distributed over different frequencies failed.”

This was one of those moments- a crossroads- in history where the merging of previously very successful theories created a stumbling block. The solution to this one problem opened the flood gates that would eventually give rise to quantum mechanics and all of its predictive glory.

Explaining the obvious observation that black bodies somehow distributed these radiations without, for example, spiraling towards an infinite series of escalating temperatures became an urgent matter at the time. Physicists such as Wilhelm Wien and Lord Rayleigh came up with formulas that came close- but not close enough to agree with the observed data.

In the end, it was through the enormous effort of Max Planck- basing himself on Weins formulas- that finally led him in October of 1900 to create a mathematical formula that agreed with the observed black body distribution of energies. This was the key that opened the door of the world of quantum mechanics. Planck realized that the behavior of black body radiant energy distribution could be accounted for if the vibrating charges emitted radiation not continuously (as previously assumed) but in lumps- which he called “quanta.”

According to Ford “Planck had to postulate that the minimum energy quantum a vibrating charge can emit is directly proportional to the frequency of vibration.” Hence was born Planck’s formula:

E=hf

Where E is the quantum energy, f is the frequency, and h is the “constant of proportionality”- Planck’s constant. It is this little constant –by coherently connecting energy to frequency- that caused a revolution.

This led, perhaps to Planck’s dismay, ultimately to the realization that matter and energy at these levels seemed to behave in a granular and lumpy way- “not continuously like water from a fire hose but instead in lumps like baseballs from a pitching machine.” Over the next quarter century luminary physicists such as Max Born, Neihl Bohr, and Erwin Schrodinger gave form to a more general theory of the sub-atomic world and gave rise to the framework of today’s quantum mechanics.

As one delves into the incredibly small depths of Planck level reality, the fluidness of the “classic” macroscopic world gives way to lumpiness and the familiar gives way to strangeness. It is a world of bizarre interactions, of “wave” probabilities, corpuscle behaviors, and (as far as we know) truly fundamental particles.

This elemental world -possibly the very core of matter as we know it- lies within all of us. Yet, despite the many claims of fantastic powers feeding off of a “quantum consciousness” or assertions that mind over matter can cure all ills; this realm -in that way- is beyond our reach.

On the other hand, we can use real quantum knowledge to explore incredible horizons and perhaps invent unimaginable technologies based on its properties. It is important to remember that without the incredible work of Planck and others we would never have known this realm even existed.

As Ford aptly notes “Plancks constant remains the fundamental constant of quantum theory, with ramifications that go far beyond its original role in relating radiated energy to radiated frequency…it is the constant that sets the scale of the subatomic world and that distinguishes the subatomic world from the “classical” world of everyday experience.”

Ref:

Ford, K. The quantum world. Harvard university press.Cambridge, Mass. 2005

Al-Khalili. Quantum.Weidenfeld &nicolson, London, UK. 2004

Becoming conscious

Stepping through the door

Picture the calm surface of a bathtub full of water. Now take a baseball sized rock and drop it into the tub and watch the unfolding orchestra of undulating waves play out. If you observe closely you’ll note a first series of waves emanating outward and hit the edges of the tub creating new waves that then bounce back across the surface. This action repeats itself on and on until a wildly complex interplay of undulating waves produces a chaotic mass of movement. This instant where wave upon wave dance together is an important image because it reflects what might actually happen in our own brains.

The crucial point is that it is just this type of complex undulating interplay between neurons and brain centers that seem to lift sensory stimuli to the level of awareness and beyond. In essence, it seems that the path to consciousness is not really a path, but more a simultaneous chorus of neuronal interactions where the sum total of these effects- given enough time- provide the crucial stepping stone to awareness.

In the brain, if a stimulus input is strong enough to “awaken” a certain threshold of neurons they can, for example, fire synchronously creating oscillating waves of stimuli that eventually creates the pattern necessary for awareness. These firing rates (Hz) can vary widely and it seems only a narrow range of neuronal activity favors the appearance of consciousness.

Generally speaking neuronal firing rates range from 1 Hz to 250Hz. Lower ranges between 1-2 Hz (delta waves) reflect deep sleep, 4-8Hz (theta) drowsiness, 8-12 Hz (alpha) relaxed awareness, and 18-30 Hz diffuse attentive awareness. On top of these general oscillating patterns, the brain also exhibits smaller areas of intense activity that average 40 Hz and are called gamma rate oscillations- these are associated mostly with “consciousness”.

More intense the firing involves more brain modules and reflects a “fuller” experience- but up to a point. It seems that gamma rate oscillations provide just the right level of neuronal firing in order to reach that critical threshold- much like finding the right combination for the Stargate (need to watch the movie if you haven’t!).

Francis crick and Christof Koch believed that this gamma oscillation represented consciousness “per se” but over the years numerous studies of the 40Hz= consciousness theory have revealed a deeper and more profound connection.

Rita Carter notes “40 Hz activity marks information processing that has the potential of becoming conscious, providing it is “doubled up” or re-represented at a higher level. So, for example, an island of 40Hz firing in the sensory cortex is the first level representation of a sensory event which will be one of the “contents” of consciousness if- and only if- it triggers further 40 Hz activity in a part of the brain which produces higher-order or “whole” perceptions and/or concepts.”

In other words, as previously mentioned, it is the “dancing” interaction between the lower and higher regions of the brain that seems to give rise to consciousness- it is not a bottom to top sequence. Carter adds “Conscious perception, then, is not of these first-order representations. Yet nor does it seem to be just of the higher-order re-representations that follow. The “knowing of knowing” requires both the higher order representation and the lower order representation to be present in the brain at the same time, or at least close enough in time for them to merge.”

Of note she states that time is a part crucial of this process “Whereas a simple image becomes conscious in about 200 milliseconds, complex images take almost half a second to emerge.” Additionally there is a correlation between the complexity of consciousness and where in the brain it might emerge. According to Carter “You would also expect to see a parallel between the level of complexity of a “piece” of consciousness, and its place in the construction chain. And you do. Roughly, the more complex the perception, the further forward in the brain the neural activity relating to it extends.”

This time dependant process tied to all the described interplay implies that the “mind” is not one region or entity. This solidifies the fact that the workings of the mind obey laws of nature- like anything else. It plays out a temporally dependant to and fro feedback sequence of neuronal oscillations that eventually trip into consciousness.

One might ask, so what? Well, for one thing, if true (as observations indicate) it pretty much makes dualist mind/body theories untenable. If that weren’t enough, it also strikes at the heart of some of the “quantum consciousness” hubris as well. There are no detectable “non local” - no instantaneous- connections between minds. There is an incredibly complex symphony of activity that does occur, but it all happens inside your own skull.

These discoveries don’t make the phenomenon of consciousness any less sublime and beautiful. On the contrary, the truth is more beautiful than anything we could ever make up.

Ref:

Carter, R. Exploring Consciousness. Univ of California Press. Berkely, CA. 2002

The Quantum and Fundamental Probabilities

….or can we walk through walls?

The truly strange and probabilistic nature that rules the quantum universe has been a challenging idea even for physicists to conceptualize and eventually accept as part of observable reality. It is not hard then to imagine, how a hopelessly mangled popular version of the “power” of the quantum has captured the imaginations of so many alternative medicine gurus and new age world views, not to mention a multitude of the general population.

This stems from the fact that one of the most confusing concepts in quantum physics happens to be one of its most basic properties- its inherently probabilistic nature. What makes this so weird and different is the very difficult to grasp idea that this quantum probability seems to be a fundamental quality. That is, as far as can be discerned, there are no further details or obvious deeper internal mechanisms that might be the cause of this fussiness. It seems that the very nature of quantum phenomena is to be “fuzzy”. However, as a whole, this inherent fuzziness coalesces into predictable behavior and eventually gets buried under the enormity of our level of reality.

In 1899 during the dawn of studies in radioactivity, Ernest Rutherford and others came upon an observation that eventually gave rise to the quantum theories of today. These scientists noted that the decay of radioactive atoms followed a consistent pattern- a decreasing exponential decay that occured through time.

However, only the combined average of decaying atoms gave this predictable pattern. They noted that, atom to atom, the decay event occurred randomly at any time- they were unpredictable. Only the combined average of decay events permitted these scientists a glimpse to the probabilistic behavior of the quantum world.

These observations became the spark of weirdness that opened the doors for Max Born, in 1926, to declare “the fundamental laws of the subatomic world are laws of probability, not laws of certainty.” As Kenneth Ford puts it “Quantum mechanics does not, and cannot, predict when a particular electron in a particular atom will make a quantum jump or to what state it will jump. What Quantum mechanics predicts is the probability that the electron will jump. That probability can be calculated quite precisely.”

What does this have to do with our present discussion? The implication here is that, at the classical level of physics, the behavior of things is much more definable and exact. Outcomes, in principle, can be cleanly calculated by having knowledge to a point of initial conditions (of course to be clear “little” things like chaos theory- butterfly effects- make this proposition quite unrealistic). At the quantum level though, the way of things are hazy and inexact. Again, probability at the quantum level seems to be fundamental- not a matter of just not knowing enough about the system. Only the chance of something happening can be calculated not what will happen. Paradoxically, quantum mechanics is definable and exact from the point of view that probabilities can be calculated precisely. .

Because of the unpredictable “fuzzy” qualities of quantum behavior physicists have discovered bizarre effects such as transmutation and tunneling that occur at these tiniest of levels but are drowned and buried under the infinitely more massive interactive weight of the classical level of reality. These quantum qualities can be actually utilized to create new avenues of research and technology. Physicists can capitalize on this quantum behavior and utilize its strange properties to design for example Geiger counters that detect individual atom sized explosions, and scanning tunneling microscopes that “see” atoms.

Yet, as mentioned, these fundamental quantum properties hide from our ordinary macroscopic everyday world and herein lay the core of misunderstanding with “popular” as opposed to actual quantum theory. For example, it is absolutely breath taking how the phenomenon of quantum tunneling- where a particle can suddenly “appear” on the other side of an “impenetrable” barrier- has been taking so completely out of context.

That fact that tunneling occurs at the quantum level is well known, but that it is an exceedingly small probability-even at this level- is either not understood or completely ignored. We can take advantage of this quantum property at these tiny fringes of reality because of the probabilistic qualities observed at this quantum level and the shear number of quantum particles involved. On the other hand, these are not manifest properties of our big world.

Ford notes “Within a nucleus, an alpha particle may be “knocking on the door” 10²⁰ times per second to get out, yet may make it through only after millions of years. In our human-sized world, the probabilities are even smaller. A warden need have no fear that a prisoner leaning against the prison wall will suddenly be free on the other side of the wall.”

Further he writes that “If most of what happens in the small-scale world is governed by laws of probability, why isn’t the same true in the large-scale world? The large-scale world is, after all, built of the numerous pieces of the small-scale world and must be subject to the same laws. (As I remarked earlier, we often encounter probability in the large-scale world, but it always arises from lack of full information-it is a probability of ignorance, not a fundamental probability.) There are two reasons fundamental probability usually hides from our view in the everyday world. One reason is that when enough individual probabilistic events are amassed, the result can be smooth, predictable change...The other reason is that fundamental probabilities, when extrapolated to the large-scale world, often turn out to be nearly zero or nearly one. The chance that quantum-mechanical tunneling will propel you through a brick wall is effectively zero (but not exactly zero). The chance that a thrown baseball will follow a smooth path, not zig or zag unpredictably, is effectively one-that is, 100 percent (but not exactly one).”

This is the Achilles Heel of mind over matter enthusiasts and practitioners in such varied human disciplines as transcendental meditation, vitalistic alternative medicines (i.e.; Homeopathy, Reiki, Acupuncture, Therapeutic Touch.), and disciples of quantum consciousness paradigms. On the other hand it is easy to see how so many can overlook the “fine print” of what the observations tell us and be seduced by attractive and hypnotic concepts.

In fact, it is possible to imagine that so many of these imaginary paradigms are but crude facsimiles or manifest fairy tales of the technological advances that may actually come to be some day if we continue to expand on a true understanding of the unfolding universe before us.

Ref: Ford, K. The quantum world.Harvard Univ Press. Cambridge, Massachusetts. 2004

Chasing ghosts in the machine

Beyond the data

Going beyond the data takes one to the world of imagination and fiction. It is a place where kettles circle the sun, bunnies tell time, and assertions of a quantum consciousness all co-exist with equal pretensions to legitimacy.

For all the impressive intellectual energy invested in so many human world views, we need to remember they are mostly our own creations- they have not been proven to exist beyond our words. They are basically made up human constructs created in infinite combinations and forms designed to entertain, excite, or even organize.

Therefore the usefulness of these constructs may have a utility or value depending on a given culture, time period, or socio-cultural need. For example, medicine before the nineteenth century was a mess of competing schools of thought, each claiming real therapeutic action with no way to differentiate whether they were all right or if some worked better than others.

Only the advent of the scientific enlightenment- a successful system for evaluating reality- allowed for a method that dispassionately filtered out ineffectual or illusory therapies. The general effect was that many made up medical modalities were discarded to the fringe while others proved their mettle under the scrutiny of this system.

So it is this discussion turns to a familiar and recently re-emphasized claim by Deepak Chopra regarding his pet philosophical baby- quantum consciousness. Now, anybody is allowed to make anything up and there is nothing wrong with fantasy. Incredible tales have been woven at the fire side to pass the time. Indeed, there is much good to be said about this ancient human trait.

However, when these tales make claims regarding health care they are open to the same scrutiny and dispassionate analysis given to any other medical concept. If Deepak Chopra insists that a person can manifestly control "their" universe and that the mind- as an entity in of itself- has the power to mold the material universe, then it is up to him to demonstrate it with the data.

Poetry is a beautiful and important means of expression and may even have a place in offering therapeutic benefit in some cases. However, Chopra uses flowery words and meaningless statements to claim certain facts about the nature of the material world that have little basis on what is actually there. The problem though, is that from these very basic erroneous foundations he and many others imply- often quite blatantly and with confidant assurance- the existance of untenable medical philosophies and concurrently formulate model therapies based on them.

To date, all that is known regarding quantum physics reveals no evidence of macroscopic extra corporeal manifestations or of some ethereal essence through which the human mind can act. The observations noted at the level of the extremely small, the quantum, are extrapolated by these confused claims directly to the macroscopic world. Difficult to conceptualize phenomena that occur at the quantum level such as non-locality, superposition, and entanglement manifest their fascinating properties at the infinitely tiny plank dimension.

Many great physicists from Newton, Einstein, Bohr, and Wheeler to name but a few have made huge inroads towards understanding the continuum between these dimensions. De broglie, for example, discovered the sublime relationship between wave and particle like properties of matter and opened the door to understanding how these quantum actions, though not evident in our world, indeed provide the underpinning for this world.

The Standard Model is a breathtakingly accurate means for predicting the properties of the quantum world. It does not shed light on the type of quantum behavior Chopra claims our minds can initiate. It is true that at the level where observation ends and speculation begins, even physicists have taken stabs at conjecture.

Perhaps some of these ponderings might have some basis in truth, but for now, they are outside observation and are speculation; some more educated than others. Even these conjectures though fall into the realm of metaphysics and here we come head to head again with our previously mentioned flying kettles, time obsessed bunnies, and anything else that can not be evidenced in our observable world.

The demands and expectations of today’s medicine require more than world views reminiscent of nineteenth century “a priori” based theories. Medicine needs to follow the evidence and gracefully decline the mirage offered by illusory claims.

Feynman diagrams

Grasping the many strange and often counter intuitive phenomena that comprise “normal” quantum phenomena is a daunting task for many non-physicists. It takes time, persistence, and careful consideration to visualize these fascinating concepts-but when you do the rewards are worth the effort.

So it is that when an exceptional description or concise, easy to understand representation of quantum theory comes along it is immensely appreciated. Among the more difficult quantum level events to grasp are the various force/particle interactions, their relationship to virtual particles, and the unconventional use of space time that allows for the unfolding of a beautiful interplay of interactions.

If many quantum features such as granular matter, uncertainty, and the constant annihilation/creation of particles can be visualized, a much clearer understanding of larger physical concepts can be attained. Learning about the nature of how these subatomic particles interact and understanding that these are events of the very small can help one avoid the pitfalls of confusing these phenomena with more mundane esoteric beliefs (i.e.; quantum consciousness as alternative medicine describes it). The Feynman diagrams attain just this kind of connection to natural events.

As Kenneth Ford (The Quantum World) notes “Richard Feynman invented a method for diagramming events in the subatomic world that is a great aid to visualizing what is going on there. In particular, these ‘Feynman diagrams’ reveal what we think is ‘really’ happening when a force carrier gets exchanged between two other particles, accounting for an interaction between them.” He adds “A Feynman diagram is a miniature space time map.” They could be considered shorthand science.jrank.org/pages/2699/Feynman-Diagrams.html outlining the calculations depicting electromagnetic and weak interactions between particles.

In essence, these diagrams provide a visual glimpse into this strange world while combining a variety of ideas into one dynamic representation. Ford clarifies “In relativity theory, an ‘event’ is something that happens at a particular space time point- that is, at a point in space and at an instant of time….In the particle world, events seem to occur at exact space time points, not spread over space and not spread over time. Indeed, experiments indicate that everything that happens in the subatomic world happens ultimately because of little explosive events at space time points-events, moreover, in which nothing survives. What comes into this point is different from what leaves it.”

hyperphysics

The hyperphysics web site details the diagrams as follows “The time axis points upward and the space axis move to the right. Particles are represented by lines with arrows to denote the direction of their travel, with antiparticles having their arrows reversed. Virtual particles are represented by wavy or broken lines and have no arrows. All electromagnetic interactions can be described with combinations of primitive diagrams like this one.”

hyperphysics

These diagrams reveal two central and critical qualities that define quantum interactions. The first is the fact that where the lines meet describe an interaction in space time called a vertex. Ford notes “Here is the stunning generality that physicists now believe to be true. Every interaction in the world results ultimately from the emission and absorption of bosons (the force carriers) by leptons and quarks at space time points. Three-prong vertices's lie at the heart of every interaction.”

The second quality involves a fascinating reality. Ford elucidates “…the interaction event is a truly catastrophic event in which every particle is either annihilated or created…The electron flying upward to the left in the figure [above] cannot be said to be the same as the electron that entered from the lower left. They are identical, because they are both electrons, but saying that the one leaving is the same as the one that arrived has no meaning.”

Another rather amazing fact about this quantum world is how particles essentially move independent of time- anti-particles could be looked at as a particle moving backward through time. Again Ford explains “To think of this process proceeding forward in time, you could again imagine a horizontal ruler moved slowly upward [see first two illustrations below]...the arrows are labels…Their purpose is to tell whether the line is that of a particle or an anti-particle. So the line on the right with a downward-pointing arrow represents a positron moving forward in time- that is, upward in the diagram. But…the forward in time positron is equivalent to a backward in time electron…An electron comes along from the left, moving forward in time, emits photons…and then reverses its course through time. Strange but true. Wheeler and Feynman showed that the descriptions in terms of a forward in time and a backward in time electron are both ‘correct’ because they are mathematically equivalent and indistinguishable.”

The Feynman diagrams shed light on these peculiar subatomic interactions and help reduce some of the confusion in other areas of quantum phenomena .They provide the basis for an improved view of a profoundly mysterious realm. In addition, the foundational concepts that gave rise to these diagrams provide the basis for formulating a complementary- yet alternate description (Feynman’s sum over histories description of quantum phenomena) of particle/wavelength behavior that diminishes, to some degree, the confusion caused by the wavelength description of events at this level of reality.

Ref: Ford, Kenneth. The quantum world. Harvard univ press. Mass. 2004

Models of reality

The quantum without waves? One physicists view

Imagine pondering the universe as it presents itself to us, from the majesty of the observable cosmos down to the apparently impenetrable quantum veil, and being able to come up with a vision that ties it together. Indeed, this describes the quest of innumerable individuals searching for that holy grail of physics- the Theory Of Everything.

An endless flow of human thought has considered this question and slowly the nature of reality has revealed itself to us in tantalizing clues here and there scattered throughout the physical sciences. Of course, whether or not humanity will ever reach this goal remains a question. For that matter, there may be no such descriptor of existence within our mental grasp- only phenomena we can observe that reflects a reality beyond our minds.

The paths of human thought that seem to provide the most promise towards gleaning fairly accurate impressions of this reality are those that probe and observe the nature of things. Even if the instruments used; our eyes, ears, touch, and by extension the finer instruments of scientific invention, are all uniquely human in form or construct, they still represent legitimate tools for reaching out to that reality.

Most scientists are realists in the sense that they understand that their measurements, though crucial in framing reality for our comprehension, do not define it. There is probably more reality beyond the reach of the formulas, references, and models we construct. These constructs are best described as tools useful in our endeavor towards learning about the nature of things. There is a classic Skeptico post that alludes to how we learn. Titled: “How do you prove photgraphy to a blind man?” it is well worth reading as it provides an analogy to how imperfect human observation can actually reveal the secrets of reality.

This is where many become confused and mistake the scientific models of reality for reality. For example, the concept of relating wavelength properties to quantum events serves the purpose of describing certain phenomena such as nonlocality and superposition. However expanding this beyond the Planck realm to our vastly more dense reality by alluding to a cosmic consciousness, goes beyond what is actually observed and into unreal and imagined associations.

Victor Stenger in “The Comprehensible Cosmos” notes: “The success of physics testifies to some connection to an underlying objective reality. So what might that reality be?” That is the question that we can not answer yet. However, Stenger posits that it is possible to think about this “imponderable” issue using as a base what we can observe of that reality taking into account the fact that our models and equations are essentially tools- that they are not the reality itself.

On the locality of quantum nonlocality

Based on this foundation of observed phenomena, Stenger notes that many theoretical physicists and mathematicians “hold that abstract mathematics, wave functions, quantum fields, metric tensors, and the very equations that hold them together, exist in a world separate from the physical world- a world of ideal “Platonic” forms.”

For example, Roger Penrose envisions that the “ mathematical world is the set of all ‘true’ statements including those that have nothing to do with the physical world and so is not wholly part of that world.” The physical world is a small part of this larger mathematical universe.

This is a form of metaphysics in that it can not be proven using “logic or data.” In this boundary of theoretical physics where observation begins to give way to conjecture Stenger offers a straightforward “metaphysical” theory different than a “Platonic” world view.

He describes an “atom and the void” viewpoint where all the physical “laws” of reality are a result of the interactions between particles. “In this scheme, fundamental particles (or perhaps strings or m-branes) and the more complex objects that are formed when they stick together constitute the sole reality. The observed behavior of these objects is described in the very familiar way we describe the motion of rocks, balls, planets, and other localized bodies of everyday experience- with some differences needed to account for quantum phenomena.”

He stresses that the described wave nature of matter at the Planck level simply serves a purpose and mentions that Feynman and Dirac (great physicists in their own right) both indicated that the concept of waves never needed to be introduced into physics.

Stenger notes for example that: “Quantum mechanics, in its conventional application, treats the interference pattern as a probability distribution of an ensemble of particles, not as the predictive behavior of a single entity called a ‘wave.’ No etheric medium is doing any waving. The wave function lives in a multidimensional abstract space, not in familiar space-time. So it is hardly a likely candidate for a component of reality unless you take the Platonic view.”

With regards to nonlocality, Stenger points out that, from an “atom and the void” viewpoint it is an illusion. To clarify he notes that, at the quantum level, “no direction of time is evident” and nonlocality is not needed if quantum particles can move in both time directions.

According to Stenger “The direction of time of our experience can be understood as a statistical preference in which many body systems, with their highly random behavior, tend to approach equilibrium. The second law of thermodynamics simply defines the arrow of time… In general time reversibility can be used to eliminate many of the so-called paradoxes of quantum mechanics.”

This makes it possible for one particle to be at two places at once while behaving locally. Feynman described positrons as electrons going backward in time and this perfectly fits their properties. However, he preferred to stick to the convention of a single time direction and interpreted these “backward” electrons as antiparticles. Nevertheless, Stenger notes: “The model of localized atoms and the void can be made consistent with all observations to date, including quantum phenomena, with a minimum of assumptions once we allow for time reversibility.”

This more straightforward view of the universe leads Stenger to conclude the following: “The laws of physics are simply human inventions motivated by our desire for a viewpoint-independent picture of the universe…the symmetries that lead to the laws of physics are exactly the same as those that would apply if the universe were completely empty. They are symmetries of the void…something comes from nothing because something is more stable than nothing.”

Ref: Stenger, V. The comprehensible cosmos. Prometheus books. New York.2006

Quantization, wavelengths, and granular reality

When Victor-Louis de Broglie linked the wave nature of matter to the fundamental size and structure of atoms, the stage was set for quantum physics to enter a fantastic and bizarre realm of discovery. The realization that the wavelength of the electron determined an atoms size provided the seeds that led Max Born (through Schrödinger’s equation) to a startling conclusion. He realized that there was a connection between quantum wavelength distributions (probabilities) of electrons and their particulate behavior; that is wave-particle duality and wave-probability go together. The implications were enormous as the whole of quantum physics became probabilistic in nature. Additionally, here was a better way to probe the quantized or granular nature of reality.

This granular characteristic has roots in the very make up of reality itself. Probing the tiniest boundaries of existence, a place where the plank scale rules, it is possible to glimpse mysterious and fundamental interactions that ultimately describe this granular reality. For example, by observing the dynamic relationship between electrons and atomic nuclei we gain some understanding of the origins to this quantized or granular existence. Among the various complex quantum forces, these two seem to stand out together bound in eternal conflict. But one that results in the very reality we live in.

The kinetic energy of an electron searches out the lowest energy and “seeks” to expand out and away from the nucleus while the attractive force – the potential energy of the nucleus “pulls” at the electron. A balance is reached between these two forces and the electron spreads itself throughout this specified region (which turns out to be around 10^-10 m). As nuclei increase in size, they pull electrons closer to the nucleus thus forcing them into a higher kinetic state allowing “space” for more electrons to occupy up to a maximum region of balance (of charges). The last electron to fill the imbalance of forces will eventually fall into the same region as the electron of the smallest nucleus does (hydrogen)-10^-10m; hence all atoms are actually similar in size.

Ultimately, the balance between the kinetic energy of the electron and the potential energy of the atomic nucleus provide a natural backdrop from where quantum behavior can have wave like properties. As an electron distributes itself in three dimensions at the point of balance, its wavelength is “focused” or bound in an area around the nucleus. However, because of the diffuse distribution of a wave, even a fixed wave, it “oscillates” and behaves probabilistically. That is you can not readily localize it to one spot- it is nonlocal.

Interestingly, depending upon the electrons excitement the wavelength will oscillate around the nucleus at varying frequencies. For example, using the Hydrogen atom Kenneth Ford (The Quantum World) describes the resulting phenomena stating: “This behavior is reminiscent of the vibration of a violin string in its fundamental mode and in its higher harmonics. The lowest vibration frequency of a string held fixed at its two ends has one-half wavelength over the end of the string. The second harmonic is one in which there is a full wavelength over the length of the string…And so on. It is the nature of the rules governing sound that the second harmonic is twice the frequency of the fundamental…and so on…the frequencies of vibration of the violin string are quantized. A string of given length and tension vibrates only at a discrete set of frequencies.”

In essence, the observed quantization of atoms is, in some ways analogous to different lengths of vibrating waves with their combined set of specific frequencies. Schrödinger provided the equation that mathematically yielded the observed quantized energies, which thereby supported de Broglie’s wave-matter theory. This salient topic, from a quantum point of view, helps broaden ones perspective concerning the nature of reality and opens the way to ever stranger domains.

Ref Ford, K the quantum world. Havard Univ Press.Massachusetts, USA.2004

The De Broglie Equation

Glimpsing Quantum Physics from physicists helps shed light on how it is so misunderstood

Understanding how complex natural systems interact and behave as global phenomena can be a daunting challenge. The body of information about our world is expanding exponentially as, for example the calculating capacity of computer CPUs continues to grow gathering ever more pieces of information. Getting bogged down and frustrated is not a hard thing to do for anyone trying to get some grasp of it all. Taking this information in slowly by small bits and pieces allows one, at least me, to better digest and grasp the world as we see it through careful study.

In this way, one can be guided by as true an image of things as they are verses how we might think they are. So it is with many of the basic concepts in physics where the mathematical language can quickly become a false, alien, and esoteric barrier to the nature of the truly strange and weird phenomena encountered in nature. Quantum physics has been broadly misconstrued and misunderstood precisely because of this “linguistic” communication barrier.

Fortunately, there are many physicists who have graciously spent precious time and effort in order to bridge this gap. Their goal is to reach the many of us who yearn to feel and actually comprehend the meaning of the incredible insights into the natural world that quantum physics has provided.

With this in mind, it is helpful to touch on key areas in quantum physics that may clarify some of the misunderstandings commonly associated with many beliefs, health philosophies, and therapeutic practices commonly encountered in today's world of "make believe." Additionally, we can also begin to understand what we don’t know and the magnitude of the mysteries yet to be unraveled.

The De Broglie Equation

Louise-Victor de Broglie introduced the apparently simple, yet sublime concept that there is a link between wave properties (wavelength) and particle properties (momentum) and expressed it in the following equation:

λ= h/p

The implications have the same impact as Einstein’s famous equation that revealed the mass/energy connection (E=mc²), only de Broglies equation involves actions at very small extremes. Here, the binding key between the wavelength and momentum is Planck’s constant meaning that the equation is measured as a quantum link. Even so, it provides a mechanism that allows a glimpse into the phenomena of wave-particle duality, a somewhat uncomfortable (for some) and difficult concept to grasp.

The familiar daily macroscopic world that we observe has a clean differentiation between particles and waves. Objects have a discreet presence and place in space. They are small features relative to the universe, having mass and a location at a given time, and may have momentum and energy. Waves, on the other hand, are not small- they are spread out and can’t be localized in one point. They have oscillating properties and can either propagate through space or vibrate in one region. When waves propagate, they do so at a speed independent of the energy they carry.

Here, in this world of the big, particles go from one place to another while waves propagate without “lugging” around any material. The more energy a particle has, the faster it can go where as waves propagate at the same speed regardless of the energy they have.

On the other hand, in the very tiny world of the small- the Planck level or the quantum micro universe- these two “different” phenomena are linked. Kenneth Ford (The Quantum World) states: “Particles can no longer be exactly localized…And waves become somewhat more “material”. The thing doing the vibrating is a “field”, an entity that possesses energy and momentum, unlike the immaterial “ether” referred to in the nineteenth century and before.”

De Broglie provided new insight into understanding nature by providing a link between two apparently different phenomena, synthesizing wavelength and momentum into a simple relation of proportionality. However, at the human level of experience, it is important to remember that these links do not reach our perception. As Ford notes: “Precisely because the fundamental constants of these theories are so far removed from ordinary human experience, there was little chance that the theories would have been formulated before experimental techniques available to the scientist had extended the range of observation far beyond the range of direct human perception.”

These fascinating observations are often erroneously associated with the concept of bioenergy fields, quantum consciousness, and “holistic” mechanisms of action in medicine which actually refer to the existence of an ethereal "connection" or holistic quality of the universe that can directly impact our lives and health- this is not what the de Broglie equation implies. That these phenomena occur at such extreme regions of nature that are far beyond our ability to sense them isn’t considered in these idealistic theories. The macroscopic classical behavior of matter are what we perceive and what we use to live our lives, though they do extend from and are related to these “far off” tiny interactions.

Again Ford summarizes: “What about people? Do we have wavelengths, too? Yes, but far too small to measure. The “fuzziness” of our size introduced by our wave nature is truly minuscule. A person strolling at a speed of 1 m/s has a wavelength smaller than the size of a single atomic nucleus. Why so tiny? Because a person has such enormous momentum…True, the person’s speed is small, but the mass, relative to the mass of a single particle is astronomical….So people and baseballs, and even bacteria, have sharply defined edges and no discernible wave effects. Yet it is the wave nature of the electron that gives bulk to every atom and prevents people, baseballs, and bacteria from collapsing.”

A recent analogy of how far physical phenomena can be misinterpreted is found in the publication of a now rather infamous book titled "The Secret." Its premise is based on the assumption that the mind can “attract positive or negative energies” and that one can in this way, create a reality. “The Secret” refers to a supposed mental capability that relates to the type of quantum phenomena we have been discussing; and succeeds in spectacularly misunderstanding it.

Michael Shermer, in an article in Discover magazine, eloquently expresses the absurdity and contorted interpretation of the physics in this book: “The brain does produce electrical activity from the ion currents flowing among neurons during synaptic transmission…and produces a magnetic field…But these fields are minuscule and can be measured only using an extremely sensitive superconducting quantum interference device (SQUID)…Plus, remember the inverse square law: the intensity of an energy wave radiating from a source is inversely proportional to the square of the distance from that source…The brains magnetic field of 10^-15 telsa quickly dissipates from the skull and is promptly swamped by other magnetic sources, not to mention the earth’s magnetic field of 10^-5 telsa, which overpowers it by 10 orders of magnitude!”

There are many other areas of quantum physics that need to be compared and contrasted with popular “holistic” assumptions. On occasion, in future posts, I will touch on what physicists actually know and what they can teach us regarding the true nature and mysteries of physical phenomena.

Ref:

Ford,K. The Quantum World.Harvard Univ Press. Massachusetts.2004

Shermer,M The (other) Secret.Scientific American. June 2007 Vol 296 (6)