It is hard for me to become distraught, dismayed, or disconcerted about that which I never understood in the first place. I'm talkin' about physics.
Please do no misunderstand me. I mean no disrespect to the concept and science of physics, to physicists, or those who teach physics. One of my favorite people in the world, no - make that the universe - majored in physics. But I just cannot even fathom the potential upheaval in the physics world, no - make that the world - if the physicists from an underground "laborahtory" in Gran Sasso, Italy got it right that they discovered a particle that can travel faster than light.
I'm no Einstein, therefore I never understood Albert Einstein's theory of relativity. Let us just say that I was relatively ignorant on the subject. As long as I can keep my feet on the ground, apples fall from trees in a downward motion and attractions at Walt Disney World can defy gravity long enough for my ride to safely conclude, then I am content with my urdummheit, (German for primeval stupidity) on the subject.
Today's newspaper carries a column penned by Charles Krauthammer (This is my day for acknowledging German ingenuity, I guess.), a member of the Washington Post Writers Group. Krauthammer is usually waxing intellectual, sentimental or cynical about a politically or socially related topic so when I saw that today's column title was scientifically driven, I felt driven to read his article in its entirety. It was a heavy topic for this musician with little or no knowledge of science, let alone the weighty (pun intended) subject of physics. According to Krauthammer, if these physicists are correct, then their findings will upend the scientific world and, "It means that the 'standard model' of subatomic particles that stands at the center of all modern physics is wrong." As I wrote earlier, I am no Einstein, but even I can understand how this could create chaos in the chaos of the universe.
Just think.......you go to bed one night, totally unsuspecting and innocent, and you wake up the next morning to discover that somebodies discovered a particle (a neutrino) that can travel faster than light. This is world-shaking.
Ancora imparo
Now that is, indeed, world-shaking.
