Monday 19 March 2012

Super Strings

After banging on a bit that the Ancient Greeks used music as a means to understanding how the universe works, my attention was grabbed by a contemporary equivalent. It appears that the fundamental structure of matter is no longer considered to be particular, but, going even more microscopic than the particle level, consists of tiny bits of string. It's not relevant to ask what these strings are made from as they are fundamental - they consist of themselves and that's it. These strings oscillate and like the strings on a violin create the equivalent of different notes.  Each of these resonant modes makes a different type of subatomic particle, the building blocks of matter.  It would seem that those super strings oscillate and create a music that holds the whole damn universe together. Speaking as a musician, how cool is that. Is this why music is intuitively of fundamental importance? Without it the world would collapse.

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