Sub-atomic particles: turtles all the way down?
Scientists at the Large Hadron Collider are hoping to prove the existence of the Higgs boson, the particle which theoretically accounts for the phenomenon of mass. It is one of a growing list of observed and predicted particles which are the constituent elements of atoms and forces. Since the discovery of the atom, it seems these constituent particles have become all the more numerous, small, and hard to detect. Will there be an end to this trend? That is, will we find a base-level particle which is subject to no others? Or will we continue finding smaller and smaller constituent particles - in other words, will it be “turtles all the way down?”
The film Men In Black, if I remember it correctly, ends with a gag wherein the entire universe we occupy ends up being a mere marble in a bag of marbles of some alien child. It was a throw-away gag, but it was quite thought-provoking nonetheless. Likewise, the matter of the immensity of space and the infinitesimal smallness of sub-atomic particles is as much a philosophical paradox as a scientific inquiry. I suspect theoretical physics can provide an answer to my question. That being said, the popular models of physics are being amended and replaced by new discoveries at an alarming rate of late. At any rate, I am excited to see where the new discoveries take us.
Also published at Technocrat.
