Circles

Just a small sampling of what we don’t know –


* Why is the universe expanding?

* What is the nature of dark matter?

* Is matter ultimately made of particles, waves – or, perhaps, strings?

* What is the fate of the universe – cold death of unlimited expansion, or heat death in a Big Crunch?

* How can theory reconcile gravity with quantum mechanics, like it has with the other three forces?

* What happened just before the Big Bang?

* Is time travel possible?

* How about faster-than-light travel?

* What’s inside a black hole?

* Can wormholes exist? Do they?


Reading these pop physics books always brings to mind that old Carl Sandburg poem Circles:


The white man drew a small circle in the sand,
and told the red man,
"This is what the Indian knows,"
and drawing a big circle around the small one,
"This is what the white man knows."

The Indian took the stick and swept an immense ring around both circles:
"This is where the white man and the red man know nothing."


Of course, change the non-PC “red man” and “Indian” to, oh, “engineer,” and change the non-PC “white man” to, say, “theoretical physicist” and you’ll get the gist of what I’m saying.

Just a small thought for a rainy Saturday afternoon. The girls are sleeping and I’m halfway through Greene’s Fabric of the Cosmos. The eyelids are heavy, though.