Just read up on dark matter. Not to be confused with anti-matter which sounds dangerous but occurs in such minuscule quantity that the regular matter easily outweighs it. But it deserves the “anti-” signature because when a positron (anti-matter) does meet an electron within the atom, they annihilate each other. When you eat a banana, for example, it’s not only you putting an end to a banana: being potassium rich, there are some positrons in the banana which, meeting up with an electron take a last supper together. And you don’t even know it happened, nor would you have known, some years ago, about positrons as these particles were discovered some time after the standard structure of the atom, with its neutrons, protons and electrons was formulated. Subsequently anti-protons were also discovered: they, presumably, take care of the protons.
Dark matter is more interesting in its invisibility: you cannot shed light on it – it does not interact with light at all, which leaves us in the dark. But it has an ingredient to put physicists into high gear: a presence which cannot be accounted for. Using the Standard Model of Particle Physics, including sub-atomic particles and anti-matter, together with knowledge of the forces which govern the movement of the universe, it was possible to compute the total quantity of normal matter in the cosmos. The problem was that the sum of known matter did not come near to the total matter which was present. In addition, known matter could not account for certain phenomena of the observed universe: its rate of expansion, the speed of galaxies within clusters of galaxies and the degree of gravitational lensing. But physicists find other switches, such as observation and reason. Take gravitational lensing: “Something’s bending the light from galaxies afar… but what lies between us and those galaxies does not have enough gravitational pull to do that… which means there’s something else – a lot of something else – doing it.” And that something else is dark matter.
Dark matter is thought to make up 85% of the matter within the universe, so even though seeing it is not possible, it is not a case of what the eye does not see, the brain does not chase after. Since dark matter became a reality, scientists have latched on to every method possible to detect and explain its nature, knowing, too, that by understanding its origin they will be a number of steps along the way to explaining the origins of the universe.
In the pursuit, they search for concrete evidence of dark matter, which means being able to see what is not to be seen. This requires a special approach. Immersion in concrete matter seems the way to go, which is why scientists travel down mines and search for dark matter with more than two kilometres of solid rock above their heads. That solid rock acts as both a massive sieve, allowing only the most infinitesimally small particles to fall right through it, and as a block against the presence of any radioactivity. Having set up these two conditions, the time is ripe for deploying the purest germanium or silicon. If a particle of dark matter collides with an atom of either of these, the spin-off of an electron will send an observable fizz trail, the properties of which can be studied and the nature of what struck it understood.
Physicists may not yet be able to tell you exactly what dark matter is, but they can tell you what it is not. Darth Vader, dead stars and black holes do not come into the playbook. Dark matter is not sensational: how can it be when it makes up 85% of the universe without us being aware of it?
While physicists mine for their cosmic gold, here on earth’s surface I find my own version of dark matter. Mine is sensational, disturbing and real. What it shares with scientific dark matter is, though, the key component: no one will ever see it or find it.
I speak of bodies which are never found. Not bodies drowned, lost down a mine or under an earthquake, but the bodies of murder victims which have been annihilated. You don’t see this on TV: crime documentaries demonstrate how forensics bring to light what the murderer who thought he had done the perfect crime never reckoned on. But you will never see the case in which there is nothing to tell, the body never found, the murderer never arrested. All that remains is a name.
That is dark matter.
The metaphysician in me has been interested in dark matter since I first read of its existence a few years ago. Why my interest? Because it seems to point to God – to a force or power beyond scientific explanation. It seems that dark matter is the material manifestation of Divine mechanics.
The young adults’ writer, Philip Pullman, in his series ‘His Dark Materials’, places a scientific quest for matter which cannot be seen or measured, central to his story. Pullman is an interesting writer, let down by his own occasional excesses. I can imagine anyone with an enquiring mind between the ages of seventeen – twenty-seven finding his writing fascinating. I came to it late of course (Pullman the popular writer is a recent phenomenon), and some of his ideas, particularly those in which he explores God – His nature, His attributes – are intriguing, if not outright blasphemous. And the relatively recent discovery of the existence of dark matter is clearly what inspired Pullman.
But the missing dead of Humankind? I have never given that issue any thought at all. I dont suppose I shall again, either. Although they must amount to millions upon millions across the span of Man’s history thus far.
I have (living in a country where the winters are particularly cruel) given the tragedy of creatures lovingly created by God – members of the animal and the bird kingdoms – who die, unknown, unmourned, unrecorded, some thought. And I consider what a bloody thing Creation is. Creation is the physical manifestation of a death cult of horrifying proportions. This material world can only represent a perfect idea, but hijacked by Evil.
While dark matter is of course also referred to (even within the community of scientists seeking to understand it) as ‘The God Particle’.
I have just picked up your comment: comments are rare in the world of mrgraham.co.za
The God Particle idea does not work for me, simply because God is omnipresent: He is part of no thing, but is above all things, having created all. To have God as part of anything is a contradiction of God, who is Spirit, not matter.
Hullo Roger,
I agree. I think most of us probably misunderstand the sense in which scientists and others use the expression ‘the God particle.’
As best I can understand (and it is a poor ‘best’), it is as the mechanistic evidence of the Divine (for those for whom there must always be a mechanical, or material, explanation for the sacratissima mysteria), that the term ‘the God particle’ might be understood; ie, as the mechanical, or motivating expression of God’s all embracing presence.
Of course God is pure spirit. I most certainly agree with you! So much so, that I tend to discount the worth of the created world (see the email I sent you on 6th February 2021). But when we discount the worth of the created world because it is comprised of matter, not spirit, we share a platform with all sorts of Gnostic and dualist heresies, of which perhaps the Cathars (whom the Church destroyed in the 13th century) are the best known.
As I’ve said many months before: I know less now than I knew aged twenty-one! I am no longer as certain of anything as I was as a young man.
I read this with interest but what it’s saying beats me. I know what a banana is but not obscure concepts like matter, anti-matter, dark etc. They should be defined before they are used or, at least they should become clearer in the reading.