Physicists discovered that the atoms of each unstable element decay at a constant rate. Neil deGrasse Tyson, Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey: The Clean Room VII, Fox 2014
We seem to inhabit a universe made up of a small number of elements – particles – bits that swirl in chaotic clouds, occasionally clustering together in geometrically logical temporary configurations. Timothy Leary, Chaos and Cyber Culture
There’s something mysterious coming up from the frozen ground in Antarctica, and it could break physics as we know it.
Physicists don’t know what it is exactly. But they do know it’s some sort of cosmic ray – a high-energy particle that’s blasted its way through space, into the Earth, and back out again. But the particles physicists know about – the collection of particles that make up what scientists call Standard Model (SM) of particle physics – shouldn’t be able to do that. Sure, there are low-energy neutrinos that can pierce through miles upon miles of rock unaffected. But high-energy neutrinos, as well as other high-energy particles, have ‘large cross-sections’. That means that they’ll almost always crash into something soon after zipping into the Earth and never make it out the other side.
And yet, since March 2016, researchers have been puzzling over two events in Antarctica where cosmic rays did burst out from the Earth, and were detected by NASA’s Antarctic Impulsive Transient Antenna (ANITA) – a balloon-borne antenna drifting over the southern continent. Scientific American online 29 September 2018, ‘Bizarre Particles Keep Flying Out of Antarctica’s Ice, And They Might Shatter Modern Physics’
Quantum Entanglement: Particles separated by unlimited distances in space, and this only makes sense if the world is a virtual construct. The Simulation Hypothesis, 2015
Our perception of the universe is an illusion: they are connecting two of Europe’s largest telescopes … perhaps the strangest idea in science: quantum entanglement … Can particles be connected as if they joined together even if they are millions of miles apart? Einstein rejected the idea … Is Entanglement real? Einstein’s Quantum Riddle ***** BBC 2020
The electron is just a wave of fuzzy probability. ibid.
Quantum Physics: Its mathematics were elegant and beautiful. ibid.
The Einstein Podolsky Rosen Paradox: a seemingly magical effect … How could two particles act in unison? ibid.
The particles were fuzzy and undefined until the moment they were observed. ibid.
In theory this technique could be used to create a totally secure global communications network. These are the first steps of a completely unhackable quantum internet of the future. Made possible by quantum entanglement. ibid.
We live in a world of matter. A realm of tiny particles far smaller than atoms that build the universe we know. But there is a mystery. Of all the particles scientists have discovered, the strangest and most elusive of all seem to defy our understanding of how the universe works. They are called neutrinos. Everywhere and nowhere, neutrinos are so ghostly, they can pass through solid matter as if it didn’t exist. And yet they hold the secrets to why the stars shine and what our universe is made of. Neutrino: Hunting the Ghost Particle, BBC 2021
Today, the quest to detect neutrinos has triggered multi-million-dollar experiments all over the globe. Now tantalising new evidence suggests neutrinos could be the link between our familiar world of matter and an unknown world of particles waiting to be discovered. ibid.
‘Neutrinos have got no electric charge, they’ve almost got no mass at all: they are so near to nothing as you can imagine.’ ibid. Frank Close
This mysterious fourth type of neutrino would lie outside the three already known to exist, and could be a link to an unknown realm of new particles. ibid.
Neutrinos change their identity; neutrinos have mass after all. ibid.
Most of what our universe is made of is missing. ibid.