Congratulations on discovering the Higgs boson!
Thank you, I extend it to the rest of the team, which was about 3,000 of us (the number varies according to the years considered, because the experiment lasted two). Higgs recently died: my admiration for him and the signatories of the essay.
It’s been 12 years now: does it resonate in eternity?
At least, it has confirmed all the physics we have been doing since the 20th century to explain the universe: the so-called standard model. The boson was the essential particle of matter that we were missing and we find it in the CERN particle accelerator.
Are we particles – like the boson – of the universe that explains itself?
Aristotle and Newton already wondered about the origin of matter – what we and everything are made of – and physics is explaining it day by day. I try to bring it closer to everyone.
But who understands quantum?
To begin with, I will tell you that no one – not even the Physics Nobelists – but you have to try.
Why don’t we understand quantum?
Because our brain is the result of an evolution restricted to a very small island in the universe with a small duration and energy. Therefore, it is difficult for us to understand phenomena, such as quantum mechanics, that transcend our islet.
Is wanting the monkey to explain metaphysics?
Our perception and reasoning have evolved to understand only this minimal space of reality in which we are and things are solid and predictable for us; because we didn’t need to know more.
Outside our box things exist and can a cat be alive and dead at the same time?
Quantum tries to explain regimes of which we have no direct experience, but which must be assumed to be as real as that of our islet. And it’s wonderful that so much more exists than we understand today.
Does mathematics prove the reality of which we have no experience?
We have a mathematical apparatus that explains the behavior of particles precisely, but we lack the bridge between these particle equations and our perception and experience. This unsettles us.
What if there were parallel universes?
This theory takes us to esoteric corners and is fun, but I prefer to talk about more grounded ones. They still have enough holes to explain the most accepted theories…!
Why can’t there be multiverses?
Right now there are physicists in the lab looking for dark matter or antimatter, but none looking for multiverses.
13.8 billion years ago there was a big bang and the universe expanded from nothing?
We know that the universe already existed before the big bang, which was only its great expansion, after a great concentration of energy and the fabric of space-time; and that the universe continues in this expansion, which we can verify today in the trajectory of the stars.
Does the universe not expand in space, but is space expanding?
And the expansion generated matter with its ten elevated to eighty classes of particles, such as the boson, until, 13.8 billion years later, it formed galaxies with stars and their systems; and the solar system, which is ours.
And do infinitesimal quantum and cosmic astrophysics end up being the same?
Isn’t it wonderful? And doesn’t it seem absurd that we try to understand it by specializing more and more? The father of the inflation theory of the universe is a particle physicist. Remember the snake, the Ouroboros, that bites its tail: it is the logic of the cosmos.
What are black holes?
Gravity is the inverse of the square of the distance between two bodies, but it is not invincible: if we throw a ball with the force of a rocket, it escapes the earth’s gravity; but if we compressed the mass of the Earth very, very, very much… the gravity would be more intense and the ball would not escape.
What if we pressed it as much as possible?
It would be a black hole: a body with such concentrated gravity, ergo with such a capacity for attraction, that it would not let even light escape and matter would collapse.
Have you ever seen a black hole?
When a star dies, the gravity generated by its thermonuclear reactions is so intense that all its matter collapses at its center. In the 70s, the first black hole was indirectly observed: CYG X-1k; and since then many more have been seen, such as the M87 galaxy. And one has been photographed, which we can all see.
Are you a better scientist every day?
Life begins at forty. Until now it was just research, and now I understand who I am.
What does it mean to understand who you are?
We humans find it hard to define ourselves and you don’t know how to define yourself if you haven’t experienced.
Do you know what you want?
I know what I don’t like and what I’m not good for and I accept it. It’s liberating.
