Month: February 2013

The month of July 2012 will be knownfor finding of Higgs Boson, popularlyknown as God Particle. Commonmen sometime get confused about what thisGod Particle is? Those who have not studiedphysics also know that material convertsinto energy, as coal burns into heat. In 1905Einstein had given his famous equationE=mc2, which has mathematicallyformulated the conversion of mass intoenergy. In layman’s language we can saythat this mass converting in energy is’destruction’.

If we can convert energy intomass, this will be ‘creation’. The CERNexperiment has for the first time given anindication that a particle is almost producedby energy. This particle can be consideredas the first particle of the universe so it hasto be present in all materials andresponsible for creation of this universe.That’s why this is called God Particle.Scientifically the name of the particle isBoson named after an Indian scientistSatyendranath Bose, emerging out of Higgsfield named after the British scientist PeterHiggs.

CERN experiment has shown that atvery high velocity and energy (similar tothat of at the beginning of BIG Bang i.e.beginning of universe), a particle nature(with the accuracy of 99.99997%) is found inthe imaginary Higgs field. This is the firstexperimental proof of creation of mass inform of a particle.Now the question arises, can thediscovery of Higgs Boson be considered asfinal or we have cracked the puzzle of basicparticle of universe as the name GodParticle suggests. Among the euphoria ofreaching ultimate, if we look into history ofscientific discoveries we can find theanswer.

In the 18th century when Newtongave his fundamental laws of mechanicsand gravity, it was assumed that themystery of nature is almost solved. In the19th century when John Dalton found atomsas fundamental particle the same feelingwas there, and it remained for a century.When electron was discovered in 1897,proton in 1919 and neutron in 1931, theentire concept of Dalton’s indivisible atombecame futile. In 30’s and 40’s scientistsbelieved that they were on the verge offinding the ultimate truth of nature. But, insubsequent decades the presence of somany sub atomic particles like Quark,Berion, Glucon, Meson etc were found. Thegreat Albert Einstein said that we werethinking that we have almost come to theend of the wall.

“When I opened the windowI found vast ocean of uncertainties andpossibilities in front of me”. Einstein wascorrect. With the discovery of atomicenergy in 1945, the entire concept of atomas the final particle became foolishlyobsolete.The same euphoria of almost achievingthe ultimate is again visible in the 21stcentury. My intention is not to underminethis great achievement but to have thesecond thought on the infallibility of suchclaims. The present discovery can be epochmaking in the 21st century but may be quitefar from final truth.Some people may think how does itmatter in our daily life if the basic subatomic particle is found.

I want to recallthat it was the discovery of sub atomicparticle like electron, proton and neutronwhich unleashed the energy of atom bombwhich is now affecting even our globalpolity. The Quantum theory given by MaxPlank in 1900 finally led to creation ofdigital signals and subsequent emergenceinto today’s age of communication frommobile to internet. So in the same mannerthis experiment can change the paradigm oftechnology in the coming century which wecannot foresee now.

A great American-Japanese physicistMichio Kaku in his famous book ‘Visions’had said that based on technologicaladvancement civilizations can be of 3 levels.Level 1- That civilization which knows allthe energies in their planet and got thecapacity to use them.Level 2- That civilization which knows allthe energies of solar system & got thecapacity to utilize them.Level 3- That civilization which knowseven the energies in the galaxies anduniverse beyond the solar system and gotcapacity to use them.

We got the capacity to utilize someof the latent energies of our planet (Earth),like coal, petroleum and electricity. We cansee the difference in our life and society inthe last 100 years. Still we do not knowmany of the latent energies of our planet.By this definition our civilization can betermed as almost zero level civilization.This discovery of Higgs Boson can be thefirst and a very small step of ourcivilization towards level 2 and level 3.Discovery of atomic energy has led us totravel in space, may be this discovery ofHiggs Boson may lead us to travel inuniverse.But the interesting point is the word ‘GodParticle’. With due respect, I want to saythat this concept is of western mindset.

Thewestern materialistic mindset always triesto find everything in material.Unfortunately their search of God alsoreaches or comprehends in a particleJain philosophy has a concept that thereare fundamental particles named Pudgalwhich comprises the entire world. Amongthe 6 Vedic school of philosophical thoughtsthere is one school which explains theentire world on the basis of fundamentalparticles. This is called Vaisheshik Darshanpropounded by sage Kanad. This postulatesthat entire world is made up of fundamentalparticles called Anu . The properties andeven the measurements given in VaisheshikDarshan are interestingly very similar tothe properties and measurements of Atomfound by modern science.

I am not prejudiced to prove science inthe ancient Indian text, but want that ourintellectual readers who sometime becauseof prejudiced western thoughts, lose sightof our religious scientific wisdom, see it forthemselves.Today, the date and time of solar or lunareclipse given by US physical observatory isexactly the same as in the Hindu Panchangwhich is in vogue for the last 2100 years. Onany eclipse day you can verify it. Everybodyknows that zero and decimal came fromIndia. We overlook the fact that thesemathematical discoveries were not done byany Indian scientists, but it is mentioned inVedas which are the religious texts. Most ofyou have heard about Vedic mathematics.

Mathematics as part of religious text is avery unique quality of Vedic Hindureligion. Even medical science (Ayurveda),by name itself is the part of Vedas.The basic difference in Indian andwestern thought is that Kanad’s Anu is notthe final particle. It is manifestation ofdivine consciousness. West thinks thatparticle is ultimate. So they say that theparticle is God and we say that particle isbecause of God. Now who is correct?The CERN experiment has shown thatthere is a particle (Higgs Boson)fundamental particle of all the matterwhich originates from energy i.e. a differententity.

If we extrapolate this logic we caninfer that in the same manner there has tobe the basic fundamental energy which isfundamental of all the energies of universe.Then the same question will arise fromwhere this entire energy came. Like HiggsBoson the fundamental energy has to beoriginated from a different entity beyondenergy. What is that? Science will be at itswits’ end to explain.There are 3 fundamental entities in thisuniverse. Matter, energy and consciousness.Since science which in its process ofevolution has reached from matter toenergy there still is a long way from energyto consciousness and its causative existencein supreme consciousness.

I would like to conclude with a quote ofAlbert Einstein from his famous papers, in1905 which created a new paradigm bygiving fourth dimension of time, thuschanging the concept of universe fromspace to time-space form. The quote comesfrom the book ‘Einstein In His Own Words’.It reads: “The human mind is unable toconceive of the four dimensions, so how canit conceive of a God, before whom athousand years and a thousand dimensionsare as one.”

(The author has a doctorate inMechanical Engineering. He can bereached at trivedi.sudhanshu@gmail.com)