Smaller Than a Breadbox and Larger Than a Car

I don't know how much you have read about the ingredients making up the recipe known as The Universe. You got your quarks and leptons making up the fermions. Then you got your bosons and a host of predicted particles, none of which have been observed as yet, based on theoretical considerations. Quarks come together to form neutrons and protons, which in turn come together with electrons (a type of lepton) to form atoms of the elements such as hydrogen, carbon, iron, etc. Atoms come together to form molecules, which in turn combine together to form different molecules or amalgams. Interestingly, carbon has the ability to form extremely long chains with various elemental offshoots. Also, carbon can form closed loops. Ultimately, long chains of carbon loops are what make up DNA, the backbone of all living things.

Say it with me: "THAT IS INCREDIBLE!!"

Also, the elements make up everything that exists in the Universe. Stars start out primarily consisting of hydrogen. The pressure exerted on these atoms by gravitational forces are so great that the hydrogen fuses together to form helium, releasing enormous amounts of energy. This is known as fusion.

Before hydrogen fusion was discovered, it was a mystery as to what the sun's energy source was. It was easy to believe that the Universe was quite young, such as about 6000 years, because if it were older the sun should have burnt out long ago. However, once fusion was discovered, it became clear that the sun could generate intense heat for many, many years. In fact, based on the size of the sun and its current ratio of hydrogen to helium, it is estimated that the sun could have been burning for five billion years and still have five billion years worth of life left in it. The question to young Earthers is why would God create a sun of such tremendous size that uses a fuel source that can last for billions of years if the whole Universe was only going to exist for 10,000 years or less?

Still, on the whole, the Universe is a intricate work of art. Starting with its infinitesimally small building blocks and stretching to seemingly infinite size. Forces delicately balance all the movement and transformation of these elements in apparent miraculous fashion.

Is the Universe just the way it has to be for some as yet unknown reason? Or is our Universe just a fortunate one among many Universes? Or has our Universe existed for an infinite time with the laws governing it gradually changing in favor of the one we see today? Or does it absolutely require an intelligent God for anything so stupendous as our Cosmos to exist? Profound questions that have been asked by many for a long time. Perhaps science will be able to answer these questions someday, but then again perhaps such answers are inherently unknowable. After all, our minds consist of the very things were are trying to understand. Is it possible for the constituents of the Universe to come together in such a way as to become conscious of themselves and understand their own ultimate behavior? I just don't know. But I am not alone. No one else does either.

The Shape of Space and Relativity

I like to read physics books for laymen. I would like to be able to read the ones for scientists, but hey, come on. How much additional math would I have to learn and how long would that take? No matter. I have trouble understanding the layman books. I would like to have a better understanding of relativity theory and quantum mechanics. However, from what I understand, even theoretical physicists have trouble understanding these. They may have a deep understanding of the mathematics involved, but have difficulty comprehending the actual physical workings of the Universe that those mathematics describe.

Even the relatively simple Special Theory of Relativity (about which Einstein wrote in 1905) is problematic for me mentally. Actually, I do understand the concept that if two people are moving at a constant rate of speed relative to each other, it is impossible for either person to know which is moving. But, hey, when I am told that for person A, the clock hanging around the neck of person B will appear to be running slower than his own clock, but for person B, the clock hanging around person A's neck will appear to run slower, my brain begins to tangle up like spaghetti in boiling water.

I recently began re-reading Brian Greene's book "The Elegant Universe". When I got to the part about the mutually lethargic clocks, I realized I could not comprehend this like I thought I did the first time around. The question always arises as to what happens when the two meet up. Who will be younger? I mean they can't both be younger simultaneously, right? The answer is that the only way for them to meet up is for one of them to accelerate by turning around and chasing after the other. That acceleration is what makes time run slower for that person in reality and thus cause that person to be younger than their counterpart. Okay, but what happens if the two meet up again without either one of them accelerating. This may sound like lunacy, but if the Universe is a closed system like a hypersphere, this is possible. Think about the Earth, If you start moving in any direction and another person starts moving in the opposite direction at the same speed, you will meet back up again after about 12,500 miles of traveling even though neither of you ever had to turn around and chase the other person down. Some scientists conjecture that space is curved in a similar way. This would obviate the need to wonder about the wall at the end of space and what's on the other side. There would be no end to space, even though its volume is finite. If you travel long enough in one direction, you will end up where you started.

But isn't this form of curved space incompatible with Special Relativity since we would have a paradox when the two space travelers meet up for the second time. Neither one of them would have accelerated, so the other person's clock, from either perspective, was always running slower than their own. Wouldn't this mean that, from both perspectives, when they meet up the other person will appear to be younger and their clocks will be be lagging their own? This just doesn't make sense.

So, am I right that either closed space does not exist or there is something wrong with Special Relativity? Or could it be that some sort of acceleration is necessary for an object to navigate the curvature of space?