Particle Physics ~ The Standard Model in the Social Imagination

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Based on much activity in Geneva Switzerland, namely at CERN, we have been informed that the standard model of particle physics, which describes every particle we know of and how they interact, was given much credence when the Higgs boson was discovered in 2012. Currently, measurements of rare particle physic decay at the Large Hadron Collider offer further support for the model – but also hints at ways to find out what lies beyond it.

The standard model is cherished by physicists because it can explain most of the fundamental phenomena in nature by referencing just a handful of elementary particles..

These particles include quarks (one of the components of an atom) and electron-like particles called leptons – along with their so-called antiparticles which are identical but have opposite charge. The model also includes the particles that carry forces between them (photons, gluons, W and Z bosons) and the Higgs.

The picture this model provides is remarkably complete and precise – given its (relative) simplicity and the huge variety of very different phenomena which it can explain with amazing accuracy.

But the standard model is far from perfect. For starters, it does not include gravity. Also, the elementary particles it describes so successfully make up just 4% of the matter in the universe. The rest is a mysterious substance dubbed "dark matter" whose composition we still don't know. This is one of the reasons why scientists doubt that the standard model can be the true theory of everything. 

I can tell you that we as social creatures can only know the universe through social interaction. Math is part of that interaction. It is our interaction with number, but the meaning of those numbers is socially based. We tend not to look for anything that is not socially interesting for us. In fact, we don't. So, what are we or CERN scientists looking for if we consider that they are looking for things that have meaning for them/us?

Are they looking for the beginning of the universe or the end? Are they looking for a prime mover, or God - the Creator of all things seen and unseen?
 

Certainly someone greater than man is behind the scenes of everything we think we see and or imagine. 

What about gravity? Isn't that what holds everything together? What is it anyway? How do we 'feel' it? and shouldn't we be asking why do we feel it or why is it necessary that we do? Those are different kinds of questions. Perhaps just too difficult to put into equations for 'man'.  If he did, it would only because it means something to him. Why should it mean anything? If it means something only to him, then is he creating it and or everything through social interaction? Yes and No. 

Yes, because he is an avatar of something bigger. No, because he is not bigger than himself. Which means that man too (aside of the universe) is a mystery to himself but not to his creator.

Read more: http://theconversation.com/particle-physics-discovery-raises-hope-for-a-theory-of-everything-41778#ixzz3dBKZED1C