Every once in a long while, science hits us with some shattering updates. I’m not talking about finding a cure for a disease. I’m not even talking about decoding the human genome — we knew there was some code that we just didn’t decode yet. I’m talking about literally shattering news. What is shattered exactly? Our view of how everything works and functions. What’s the difference?
- Going from thinking the common cold has no cure to finding out there is one
- Going from thinking that the Earth is flat to finding out that it’s round (or thinking the Earth is the center of the universe and everything revolves around it to finding out we revolve around the sun)
The latter represents a shift in a wildly fundamental assumption we make about this entire thing around us we term “existence.” Would your life be any different if you didn’t know that the earth was round? Probably not. Regardless, it represents a place holder in this big image that we have in our head for how everything is.
There have been several such shattering advances that really shifted our image of ourselves as human beings and our place here in the universe. Finding out that the Earth was round, that the Earth revolves around the sun, that we seem to have evolved from apes up to finding out that we are composed of atoms, we keep learning things that force us to see the world differently.
As science progresses, however, these discoveries tend to be less and less noticeable to everyday experience. For example, when we found out that the Earth was round, we could sit and watch ships sail to beyond the horizon and say “yeah… I guess they were right about this one.” On evolution, they can show us a few bones that match the theory. When it comes to atoms, we kind of have to take their word (unless you have some fancy equipment lying around).
Well we have now reached a very, very special point in history regarding all of this shattering science stuff. In the past century ‘n change, we have made arguably the most shattering discoveries in human history. On the other side of that coin lies the fact that the assumptions overthrown by these discoveries are amongst the most wildly, insanely, ridiculously fundamental assumptions we have. If you don’t know the advances I have in mind, then the assumptions I’m talking about, to you, aren’t even assumptions–they’re that fundamental.
I would like create a series of posts to share a very basic introduction to some of these most shattering discoveries. They’ve taken place over the past century and the experiments and logic are undeniable. As in, no matter how crazy it sounds, it is experimentally tested thousands of times over and over again, and the more accurate our equipment gets, the more accurate the results. I won’t go into too much depth; if you are not interested, too much depth will bore you. If you are interested, like me, then I won’t be able to keep you from researching it on your own anyway–and I ask that you don’t believe anything I say. I’ll provide the Wikipedia link and you can begin from there.
Some people might say “oh, I’m not that interested in science.” Some might love science. The more important question, I think, is if it were several hundred years ago, and we were still under the impression that the Earth was flat, would you want to find out that the Earth was round? It wouldn’t make much of a difference to your daily life if you aren’t a scientist. Deep down, I believe these are things we all would like to know, regardless of how confined to a laboratory they seem. They will redefine the nature of everything in existence (if you aren’t familiar with them already). And I promise that you don’t need to know much at all to follow the posts.
The first assumption-shattering scientific break through I would like to share is a product of a guy you may have heard of, Albert Einstein. You heard of E=MC^2, right? What does that even mean? What are the implications of this guy’s findings? I find that many of us never looked past the cultural boom that was Einstein to find out the implications of this E=MC^2, and his “Theory of Relativity.” One assumption that will be shattered for the reader is the assumption that time and space occur the same for everyone (huh?!). Click here to move to the first post in this series: Up to Date: What’s the Fuss About Einstein and Relativity?
