quanta in the ring of Saturn

[AntonioLao]

It might be a little astounding or incredible to note that Planck was not the first to start the quantum revolution circa 1900. Although he was the first to quantize energy, the quantization of Saturn’s ring as made of tiny macroscopic quanta was done about 44 years earlier by Maxwell in order to prove the validity of Newton’s law of universal gravitation.

125 years after Maxwell received Cambridge’s Adams Prize for his idea, the 1980s USA space probe Voyager vindicated his quantum theory of Saturn’s ring. For those who have seen the ring thru a small telescope or even thru a large one, the ring appears as a single solid object. Still it can’t be helped but to wonder how the ring maintains its gravitational stability. Together with Jupiter’s Red Spot, Saturn’s ring had presented astronomers and sky watchers with spellbinding images since the invention of the telescope used by Galileo to observe the planets; and the irony when observations were not supported by convincing mathematical proofs, for the Copernican theory of heliocentricity being not mathematical has caused Galileo to recant his writings and to be placed under house arrest until his death for what he sees and believed in, On the contrary, Maxwell’s triumph was the result of his mathematical ingenuity when applied to physics. In hindsight it is quite obvious that from detailed investigations of scientific documents that all previous monumental discoveries were based on prior mathematical predictions for a particular theory. For examples: Newton’s law predicted the return of Halley’s Comet, the existence of planet Neptune and Pluto. Maxwell’s equations of electromagnetism predicted the existence of radio waves. Einstein’s special relativity predicted vast energy within the nucleus. His general relativity predicted gravitational red shifts, bending of starlights, and perihelion precession of Mercury’s orbit. Dirac’s theory of electron predicted the existence of antiparticles but not necessarily antimatter. Weinberg-Salam-Glashow electroweak theory predicted the existence of weak bosons.

[baudrunner]

Dirac’s theory of electron predicted the existence of antiparticles but not necessarily antimatter.

If Dirac were alive today...

Fascinating stuff that.

I will propose Baudrunner's Theory of Time Constancy. All other things considered, I predict that time will still move in the same direction in anti-matter as it does in normal matter, which will prove that time is a product of mass and velocity, and independent of charge and direction/spin.

[AntonioLao]

Looks like antihydrogens have been detected at Fermilab?
http://ppd.fnal.gov/experiments/hbar/

[baudrunner]

It turns out then that Fermilab was first! Competition is healthy in all fields of endeavor.

[AntonioLao]

It turns out then that Fermilab was first!

Who do you think will the first to synthesize anti-DNA molecules? But I guess first there must be a table for the anti-chemical elements from antihydrogen to anti-uranium and beyond.

[baudrunner]

I think that when anti-matter's place in the cosmic scheme of things is fully understood then we'll probably just leave it alone. I wouldn't waste my money on it. According to baudrunner's theory of anti-matter's place in the cosmic scheme of things there is a creation front that moves in one direction, outwards, and this results in a predominance of spin properties of strings, ergo sub-particle constituents, ergo sub-atomic particles, ergo matter not anti-matter. That's why there is a predominance of matter over anti-matter.

The only motivation that could lead to the notion of collecting vast amounts of artificially manufactured anti-matter is an anti-social one.

But what about research? Well, okay. And off we go.

[AntonioLao]

there is a creation front that moves in one direction

The antiparticle positron is being used, as we speak, as marker of atoms and cells in chemistry, biology and medicine, and in brain imaging for finding cancer cells and understanding how the brain works.