From Absolute Abstract to Concrete, the Universe is a Continuum

    The Scientific Perspective: The scientific method developed over a long period of study of a particular discipline like, astronomy, physics, chemistry or biology with a rigorous practical methodology. Observatories and Laboratories have been set up for this purpose. A number of scientists have devoted their whole life to study the mystery of this universe. They have developed a particular perspective about the universe as a material objective world, a cosmic entity. 

According to NASA, the growth of the universe continued after inflation, but at a slower rate. As space expanded, the universe cooled and matter formed. One second after the Big Bang, the universe was filled with neutrons, protons, electrons, anti-electrons, photons and neutrinos.

    During the first three minutes of the universe, the light elements were born during a process known as Big Bang nucleo-synthesis. Temperatures cooled from 100 nonillion (10³²) Kelvin to 1 billion (10⁹) Kelvin, and protons and neutrons collided to make deuterium, an isotope of hydrogen. Most of the deuterium combined to make helium, and trace amounts of lithium were also generated. For the first 380,000 years or so, the universe was essentially too hot for light to shine, according to France's National Centre of Space Research (Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales or CNES). The heat of creation smashed atoms together with enough force to break them up into a dense plasma, an opaque soup of protons, neutrons and electrons that scattered light like fog.

    Roughly 380,000 years after the Big Bang, matter cooled enough for atoms to form during the era of recombination, resulting in a transparent, electrically neutral gas, according to NASA. This set loose the initial flash of light created during the Big Bang, which is detectable today as cosmic microwave background radiation. However, after this point, the universe was plunged into darkness, since no stars or any other bright objects had formed yet.

    About 400 million years after the Big Bang, the universe began to emerge from the cosmic dark ages during the epoch of re-ionization. During this time, which lasted more than a half-billion years, clumps of gas collapsed enough to form the first stars and galaxies, whose energetic ultraviolet light ionized and destroyed most of the neutral hydrogen.

Although the expansion of the universe gradually slowed down as the matter in the universe pulled on itself via gravity, about 5 or 6 billion years after the Big Bang, according to NASA, a mysterious force now called dark energy began speeding up the expansion of the universe again, a phenomenon that continues today.

A little after 9 billion years after the Big Bang, our solar system was born. Although the expansion of the universe gradually slowed down as the matter in the universe pulled on itself via gravity, about 5 or 6 billion years after the Big Bang, according to NASA, a mysterious force now called dark energy began speeding up the expansion of the universe again, a phenomenon that continues today. A little after 9 billion years after the Big Bang, our solar system was born.

    The ‘Big Bang’ and the ‘Expanding Universe’: Einstein, Arthur Eddington and Stephen Hawking are banging our heads about these concepts of ever static or expanding universe and the Big Bang. The ‘Big Bang’ did not occur as an explosion in the usual way one thinks about such things, despite one might gather from its name. Einstein committed error in his calculations regarding the nature of the universe. He did not realize that a static universe may be possible only when there is no matter in it. The universe did not expand into space, as space did not exist before the universe, according to NASA Instead, it is better to think of the Big Bang as the simultaneous appearance of space everywhere in the universe. The universe has not expanded from any one spot since the Big Bang- rather space itself has been stretching, and carrying matter with it. This ever expanding universe is making things, objects in space move farther and farther from each other just as the earth, moon, sun and the stars. Probably, the humans, too, are moving along with these in mind, thoughts, ideas, understanding and conceptualizations, too! It is much faster today than what it was 8 billion years ago. The universe is expanding 5 to 9 percent faster than astronomers had thought, a new study suggests. The universe was born with the Big Bang as an unimaginably hot, dense point. When the universe was just 10^-34 of a second or so old — that is, a hundredth of a billionth of a trillionth of a trillionth of a second in age — it experienced an incredible burst of expansion known as inflation, in which space itself expanded faster than the speed of light. During this period, the universe doubled in size at least 90 times, going from subatomic-sized to golf-ball-sized almost instantaneously.

     The universe was born with the Big Bang as an unimaginably hot, dense point. When the universe was just 10^-34 of a second or so old — that is, a hundredth of a billionth of a trillionth of a trillionth of a second in age — it experienced an incredible burst of expansion known as inflation, in which space itself expanded faster than the speed of light. During this period, the universe doubled in size at least 90 times, going from subatomic-sized to golf-ball-sized almost instantaneously. The first star that appeared from the condensates of nuclear dust, stellar particles, died soon due to loss of energy, but its radiation is still traced. So also, many of the elements, compounds, and minerals that have disappeared due to decomposition have left their traces. The trace elements are there for us to see.  These make our knowledge appear very limited despite all the progress we have made.

    

     The first star that appeared from the condensates of nuclear dust, stellar particles, died soon due to loss of energy, but its radiation is still traced. So also, many of the elements, compounds, and minerals that have disappeared due to decomposition have left their traces. The trace elements are there for us to see. These make our knowledge appear very limited despite all the progress we have made.

   The scientific perspective is very simple. The scientists have gone deep into the structure and composition of the universe, the stars, the planets, the satellites, the organic and inorganic materials found on this earth and have come to the conclusion that all these have a beginning in matter. This simple matter is the tiniest particle, the atom. Some scientists studied the atom and presented theories like Dalton’s atomic theory and, the latest in the series of experiments conducted is the fundamental particle, the ‘God particle’. This is explained as the fermions and bosons that constitute the primordial matter with and without energy and mass, respectively. It is not our purpose to go into the technical details here. However, here is a tiniest invisible matter that just vibrates as an energy particle that goes to form innumerable elements and compounds. As is commonly understood, Hydrogen is the basic material that constitutes the mass of Sun and it produces Helium due to fission and fusion and radiates energy as electromagnetic waves, quanta. These waves produce photons (light particles), electromagnetism- electricity, magnetism and light. There are some unexplained forces- some strong and some weak, that constitute the invisible aspects of our solar system.  All the elements and compounds like water, air, rocks and minerals, have come from this. The most prominent of these are Hydrogen, Oxygen, Nitrogen, Carbon, Sulphur, Aluminum, Magnesium, Calcium, and compounds such as hydrates, carbonates, calcites, chlorides, sulphates, phosphates, etc. To put it in simple terms, just Hydrogen, Oxygen, Carbon, Calcium and some minerals form the building blocks. These go to make the essential ingredients such as carbohydrates, hydrocarbons, calcium carbonates and bicarbonates, sodium chloride, potassium, etc. that create and sustain lifeforms! But mere assemblages will not work!

   All that is created by parts are always subject to disintegration and collapse. When the elements and compounds get separated as in the case of oxidation and reduction, or separate themselves from their combined existence, there remains almost nothing! This is what is called an ‘illusory existence’, in the sense, ‘what is made of parts give way when the components are removed’. Actually, it is the condensation of amorphous (gaseous) materials, subtle matter, that create the gross objects and, the subsequent processes of combination or dissipation of the components, only to reorganize themselves into a concrete structure that creates a visible world of objects. Nothing happens if the process is interrupted. There is a catalyst that carries out this operation. This invisible force runs all through creating paraphernalia of the worldly objects. It is stated that “Energy cannot be created or decimated. Even if visibility is blurred when the eyes are not capable of seeing the objects clearly; or, for that matter, we cannot see the objects when they become vaporous and dissipate in open space! What is the reality then? Science has no answer. Now, science has also come to state that ‘a rock is not a rock’, ‘solid is not solid’, and ‘liquid is not liquid’, but they all have their subtler and sublime forms, too! That is the reality!