Really big, small and fast

Thanks to Sergio Leone and Clint Eastwood, we all understand the meaning of “The Good, The Bad and The Ugly.” But none of us understands something far more important: The Big, The Small and the Fast. And I’m talking really big, really small and really, really fast.

By really big, I mean the universe, as we know it. Much of that understanding dates to Einstein’s special and general theories of relativity and to our subsequent acceptance of the big bang theory as the origin of the universe some 14 billion years ago. The universe is unimaginably big and rapidly expanding. But Einstein’s theory of relativity contains a universally accepted fact. The speed of light, 186,000 miles per second, is as fast as anything can go. It’s the cosmic speed limit.

By really small, I mean the exotic world of subatomic particles, such as protons and quarks. Understanding these subatomic particles is governed by a set of scientific principles contained in what is known as quantum field theory.

The essential properties of these particles are under intense study at the Large Hadron Collider located underground near the Franco-Swiss border and operated by CERN, the consortium of nations and scientists that are engaged in the study of subatomic particles. At CERN physicists are conducting experiments by accelerating these particles in opposite directions to almost the speed of light in an underground tunnel. When the particles collide, the resulting debris provides them with the opportunity to better understand the physical world of the very small.

But there are unresolved problems between Einstein’s theories and quantum field theory. When they are combined, the results make no sense. And now that problem has become immeasurably more incomprehensible, which brings us to the really, really fast.

Scientists at CERN recently conducted experiments by firing neutrinos, particles that can penetrate anything, about 500 miles through the Earth. Their intent was to study how such particles might change as they traveled from one place to another. But the tests appear to have shown that the neutrinos completed the journey by traveling faster than the speed of light — 60 billionths of a second faster than the speed of light. In other words, they got to their destination before they left.

If other scientists confirm this finding, it will upset the entire scientific applecart. It would mean, for example, that cause does not precede effect. It would mean that Einstein’s principles of relativity and quantum mechanics are flawed — fatally flawed. It will send physicists and cosmologists back to square one because it will tell them and us that we don’t understand the world in which we live — at all.