Chapter 2: Science and the Universe

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"Science is a great many things, but in the end they all return to this: Science is the acceptance of what works and the rejection of what doesn't. That may need more courage than we might think." (Jacob Bronowski) This first chapter is an overview of the universe, a view of what it is that human beings would like to understand. It is meant to raise some questions for later chapters, but not necessarily answer them right now. The most valuable knowledge is wisdom and understanding. "Wisdom" is to know the connection between behavior and its consequences. The Grand Dream of Science is to "understand" the physical world in terms of a very few laws and models. To "understand" is to recognize the connection between what is and happens in the world and their causes in the fundamental principles that govern the world. We first look inward. Human beings are made of simpler parts. We sometimes try to understand complex things by reducing the complex thing to simpler parts. This strategy is called . Human beings are made of cells, cells are made of molecules, and molecules are made of atoms. The word "atom" means "uncuttable." But, the atom does turn out to have parts and they do come apart, i.e., the name "atom" is a misnomer for the object to which it is applied! Electrons (are, are not?) uncuttable? Electrons (are small, have no size at all?). The nucleus of the atom is (cuttable, uncuttable?) , (i.e., does the nucleus have parts that can come apart?) The nucleus is made of protons and . Both protons and neutrons (have, do not have?) parts. The nucleus is very small. If the nucleus of the carbon atom were the size of your thumb, the atom would be about the size of the BYU campus. Most of the atom could be described as space. The atom overall is electrically . The parts of the proton and the neutron are called . Protons and neutrons are each made up of (how many?) . This is the present frontier of knowledge. It is not known whether quarks have parts, but for the present they are treated as being elementary particles, i.e., being without size or parts. There are only (how many?) fundamental forces: 1) the (or nuclear) force, 2) the (or, sometimes, electromagnetic) force, 3) the force, and 4) the force of Girls and molecules and atoms are structures that are primarily held together by the force. Like the atom, the solar systems is mostly empty space. If the space shuttle could leave the earth and travel to Pluto at its usual speed (16000 miles per hour) it would take 25 years to reach Pluto. If it continued to the next nearest star, it would take about 200,000 years. The Milky Way Galaxy is about 100,000 light years across (meaning it would take light, travelling at 186,000 miles per second, about 100,000 years to cross it.) There are about billion stars in our galaxy. Our solar system is near the (edge, center?) of our galaxy. "The most incomprehensible thing about the universe is that it can be comprehended at all."

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