Page 51 - An Evening with Maxwell's Daemons

The Element of Surprise

“My next idea—it just came to me a few days ago, so I need to
decide if it is worth spending any more time on it—has to do with
the folk expression, ‘weird science’.” Leith Mauker cleared his
throat; definitively, it was hoped by those sitting nearest. “More
specifically, the repeated phenomenon of discoveries in physics
stimulating off-the-wall efforts to integrate those breakthroughs
with existing religious beliefs. As theology depends upon mystery,
every reduction in the realm of the unknown challenges the
defenders of dualistic metaphysics to re-establish the primacy of the
invisible—or at least, find a loophole in physical theory that would
allow their view of reality to survive. This happened most recently
with quantum theory, black holes and the now-discredited
multiverse idea. So I thought I would anticipate the next such
occasion and imagine the response to it. Are you with me?”
“Just to be certain I follow this,” said Cyril Kornfleck. “You are
describing the reaction of the unsophisticated to new information
that is so disorienting that they cannot digest it without changing it
into something that fits their existing paradigms, right?”
“Correct. This could open a can of worms if we discussed all the
ramifications of belief and its contradictions. For now, just consider
the plausibility of my scenario—and where I might let it wander
down paths of greater or lesser interest to my readers. It begins with
a team of particle physicists trying to add to the number of atomic
elements already discovered or created—albeit fleetingly—in
particle accelerators. It is known that the instability of the new,
heavier elements in the periodic table relates to the incompleteness
of their nested shells of nucleons—protons and neutrons. The
higher the element number, the larger the outer shell and
consequent number of nucleons to make that next shell complete
and stable. Without stability, such superheavy elements decay
rapidly into lighter atoms, sometimes in milliseconds. It is therefore
hypothesized that if the next higher shell were created in the
laboratory, that element will be in what they call the ‘island of
stability’ and not fall apart.”
50