Ryan Bolles
Dr. Leggett
Chemistry
24 January 2020
The God Particle
The God Particle was an intriguing article about the evidence that atoms and
particles exist, even though we are unable to see them with the naked eye. Lederman uses a
comical approach to connect to the audience on a level that everyone can understand. He used
many analogies to verify the existence of atoms. These analogies include “The Library of
Matter,” “Quarks and the Pope” and “The Invisible Soccer Ball.” Lederman describes the
universe as the library- and all of its components to be within. For example, a library consists of
shelves with books; these books are then separated in subcategories (depending on how the
librarian wants them); these books then hold paragraphs of sentences made up of words by
letters. Letters can be broken down into algorithms, thus proving the invisible to create the
visible. Atoms are the smallest unit of the universe- invisible- but forming into visible matter.
The next analogy he used was “Quarks and the Pope.” Lederman describes a situation
with a stubborn lady accusingly saying, “Have you ever seen an atom?” He contradicts the lady’s
statement while initiating his evidence; “Have you ever seen the pope?” When the lady responds
that she has seen him on television, Lederman delineates that she saw “an electron beam striking
phosphorus painted on the inside of a glass screen.” He then describes the experiments scientists
do to track and record the protons colliding with antiprotons which generates around seventy
particles that sporadically fly into sections of the detector.
His final analogy was “The Invisible Soccer Ball.” This story portrayed an alien species
invited to watch The World Cup (best sport)! He explains how the Twilo population is similar to
humans, except they are unable to see “objects with sharp juxtapositions of black and white.”
This is significant, symbolizing the human eye’s blind spot: Humans technically predict parts of
images in the center of our vision. The alien’s disability of not being able to see black and white
means they will not be able to see the soccer ball. During the World Cup, the aliens are
extremely perplexed because they see everything happening, but without a soccer ball. The
makeup charts, tables, formulas, and scores, figuring out the rules of the game and the purpose
but without a ball. Then, the pipsqueak saw a bulge in the net when the team scored a goal. After
promulgating his discovery, the aliens concluded that there was a ball, but they were unable to
see it. This is similar to particles because we are unable to see them, but we know the laws of
nature that only the presence of atoms would make logical sense. Even though we do not see the
actual atoms, we see what they make up. Physicists can prove the presence-based on the
movements of atoms and the traces they leave behind when they move and run into objects.
“A scientific theory is an explanation of an aspect of the natural world that can be
repeatedly tested and verified by the scientific method, using accepted protocols of observation,
measurement, and evaluation of results” (Wikipedia). “Scientific laws or laws of science are
statements, based on repeated experiments or observations, that describe or predict a range of
natural phenomena” (Wikipedia). The difference between theories and laws is that laws are
proven, and theories are still hypothetical and being tested. A theory must be falsifiable so that
it’s not manipulated into being true. For example, you have a hypothesis and an experiment,
however, it is impossible to declare the theory false with your experiment. Well, this experiment
will then test “true,” but the theory could be false; you just wouldn’t know because it can’t fail
the specific experiment. Scientific theories are never fully proven because science changes every
day. Theories can be proven one day and the next day disproven. Theories in the human body
could be proven in one leg but may be disproven in the other. Overall, a proven scientific theory
is a well-established, well-experimented hypothesis that has minimal differentiation- or is proven
more than it is disproven.
The God Particle was very interesting and informative about atoms. I understand more
about particles and how they are so simple yet so complex. Atoms are extremely small and
difficult to prove. Although atoms make up all matter, they are invisible to the human eye and
many technologies. The idea that even though we cannot see atoms, we can trace them through
physics is new to me. I found it fascinating that physicists can track and record the atoms and
where they have been. Overall, this article was well-developed and gave me more information
about the atom that I had not previously known.