Have you ever looked at a diagram of the building blocks of all matter--the atom--and thought,
hmmm, that’s pretty interesting.
Kind of looks like our Solar System, doesn’t it?
See how the planets move around the Sun--yeah, that’s kind of like the nucleus--and the
neutrons and protons that comprise it.
Hey, that’s pretty cool, right?
But have you ever thought about the actual extent of this orbital function?
Have you ever thought that somewhere, somehow--if you kept stripping away the layers, a single
atom could perhaps comprise an entire universe separate to our own?
And in turn--our universe would then be merely an atom, that perhaps makes up the bark on
some tree in a distant, impossible dimension.
Woah.
Feeling weirded out yet?
Yeah, hold on to your hats.
Hello internet, what’s going on--and once again welcome back to the most inquisitive
channel on YouTube--Life’s Biggest Questions.
As per usual, I’ll be your disembodied floating voice Jack Finch--as today, we curiously ask
the question--What If Our Universe Is An Atom?
Roll the clip.
For the curious amongst you, that clip was--of course, from the finale of 1997’s Men In
Black--which is perhaps the one scene that you all had in mind before you clicked on
this video.
Right?
Maybe?
I don’t know, I can’t read your minds, that’d be ridiculous.
Either way--for many of us, that scene was indeed the first visual representation of
the idea that we’re going to outline in this next Life’s Biggest Question, where
the Universe wasn’t only caught in a bauble around the neck of a cat--but was also, at
the same time, a marble being used in a game by an alien child.
Again.
Trippy, right?
That sounds like quantum entanglement to me.
Also, any chance we get to show that movie--we’ll take--because come on, it’s awesome.
Now, listen--to even begin to approach this question, we’re going to have to do a little
bit of mental gymnastics, and vault up to this incredibly broad idea from both a scientific
and philosophical perspective.
You see, from a scientific perspective--the answer to this question is incredibly simple.
No.
Or, well--we don’t know, given the fact that under the current scientific model, there
is no evidence, theoretical or otherwise--to support the fact that there is a universe
inside each nucleus of an atom, and in turn, our own universe being one of those atoms,
in an infinite kaleidoscope of universes and atoms.
Which is a mind boggling thought in it’s own right, and perhaps we should slow down--but
that’s by the by.
You see, even if someone, somewhere managed to crunch the parameters behind such a notion--the
extent of it would be even more mind boggling.
*If* each nucleus of an atom *did* have a universe contained inside of it, then the
number of universes inside of this already expanding universe--which it is expanding--would
be unimaginable.
And then in turn, would all of those micro-universe then also be composed of atoms, and then do
each of those contain another universe within it nucleus?
Yeah, you can see where this is going, right?
The fact that we can say no to this question from the off, is down to one thing.
We already know that the nucleus of an atom has a finite number of subatomic particles,
protons and neutrons--whose weight is definitive and whose quantity is known.
We know that.
But within the infinite parameters of what this notion would propose, knowing the quantity
of something is in direct opposition to that.
The universe--and the galaxies within it, are made up of hundreds of billions of stars--more
than the number of quarks in a nuclei which we are already aware of.
We also know another thing that dismisses this--the forces that hold an atom together,
part of the Four Forces of Fundamental Interaction--are the Strong Force and the Electromagnetic Force.
Now, in our current understanding of physics--the Strong Force can only work on really small
distances--and the Electromagnetic Force is even more specific--which acts as the interaction
between charged particles.
Basically, in the laws of the very small, they’re the things that keep atoms together.
But if we apply that to this hypothetical notion, where our Universe, and thus every
Solar System within it--act on the same principles as an Atom--that’s where a clear contradiction
lies.
The distance between galaxies--as we all know, is quite large.
Yeah.
Just tell that to NASA, it’s a pretty long distance--and thus, the Strong Force has already
been eliminated.
It just couldn’t exist.
The other nail in the coffin--is that the simple fact is, galaxies do not have an electrical
charge, making the second force insignificant too--so--yeah, there goes Electromagnetic
Force as well.
You see--our understanding of the universe is split into two very clear and important
camps.
The science of the very big--the macro, all the solar systems and galaxies that comprise
our universe--and the science of the very small, the study of the sub-atomic and quantum
mechanics.
The science of the very big is illustrated perfectly by classical physics and Sir Isaac
Newton’s Laws of Motion--which defines how and why things move the way they move, planets
and solar systems included.
However, the crossover between the science of the very big and the science of the very
small eludes us--because we know that these same laws of physics drastically change when
things are extremely small, to when they are extremely big.
This crossover is known as The Theory Of Everything--a theory, which doesn’t yet exist and is the
Holy Grail of physicists and the curious minds of our species.
Now, in the application of this hypothetical situation, in the notion of our universe being
a universal myriad of the sub-atomic level--it is clearly contradicted.
At the sub-atomic level, things become erratic and uncertain.
Concepts like position--speed and motion completely lose their meaning.
Things pop in an out of existence--as is the case with Quantum Entanglement.
Particles can exist in two places at the same time.
And whilst that’s pretty run of the mill in the quantum state--but in the macro?
Yeah.
We know that two identical things can’t exist in the same place at the same time up
here--and so all of these models--all of these clearly define phenomena that scientists have
painstakingly devoted the study of their lives to--quickly defeat the notion of our universe
existing within the same principles of the atom.
Case closed.
Show’s over folks.
But there is also one thing that we do know.
We know nothing.
Well, not exactly nothing--because that would discredit the genius of the brilliant minds
that have already established our very clear understanding of what we know about the macro
and micro--but surely, we can’t be certain about everything.
Because then--we would have… well, The Theory of Everything.
You see, it’s human nature for us to look for a pattern in things--which is why the
notion of our Solar System, and thus the Universe--resembling the function of the atom is so clearly compelling.
However, although a beautiful and romantic notion, and again, deep within the fabric
of our cosmos--the hidden secrets of Dark Matter, Dark Energy, Black Holes--The Higgs-Boson,
and many other things that we don’t know--could add some form of enlightenment to what we
think we know about the nature of the universe--but right now, there are just too many contradictions
for us to accept any form of truth behind it.
We do know one thing though--in the pursuit of bridging the gap between the Science of
the Very Small and the Science of the Very Big--the only thing that awaits us, is looking
at the universe from a completely different perspective.
And that’s an exciting thought, isn’t it?
Well, there we have it--our long and short answer to the question, What If Our Universe
Is An Atom?
What did you guys think?
Do you agree?
Disagree?
Have any intriguing insights to add?
Then let us know your thoughts down in the comment section below, as well as any choice
picks of your own.
Before we depart from today's video, let’s take a quick look at some of your more creative
comments from over the past few days.
Ray Casas says--
I don’t care what they say, Pluto is a planet, it's just a baby.
--- Awww.
That’s a sweet thought, isn’t it?
You know what, I think you might be right.
Yeah.
You go get ‘em Pluto.
Well on that note, unfortunately that’s all we’ve got time for in today's video--cheers
for sticking around all the way until the end.
If you were a fan of this video, or just Life’s Biggest Questions in general, then please--be
a dear and hit that thumbs up button, as well as that subscribe bell, and I’ll be seeing
you in the next one.