An example of simulated data modeled for the CMS particle detector on the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN. Image courtesy of CERN.
There is much more work to be done, but as a
reflection and very briefly, basically the theory is that the Higgs boson would
provide the mechanism by which energy would become structured and acquire mass
to become matter as such, with its fundamental properties like inertia, etc.
What are the implications? According to the
equivalence equation E = m·c^2, matter and energy are different forms of a same
reality from a quantitative viewpoint. My reflection is that this quantitative
equivalence remains far from giving us the true picture. Nor is a book merely
the quantitative sum of paper and ink, although it can be considered in a
quantitative way from this viewpoint. But this would give us a very deficient
aspect of the true reality of what a book is.
The structure of matter, especially at the atomic
level, exhibits an enormous complexity of forces in balance, and the structure
of atoms gives to each material species its physical and chemical qualities.
Thus, atoms are structures designed to build all the architecture of the
universe and of life in all their details. But in the same way in which paper
and ink cannot be the explanation for the book, although they are certainly
constitutive parts, also mere energy does not explain the structure of matter,
which is the manifestation of a complex of structured energy interactions
(directed Power).
The whole and utterly complex material reality is an
exhibition of the consistency of the Divine purpose in the creation and in the
upholding of the Universe. Its origin? The creating Word. Its continued
support? The Word of His Power. And this Word has not only programmed the codes
of life, the “software”, but also the structured interactions of energy in the
must fundamental particles to constitute those same atoms which we classify in
the Periodic Table (the basic «hardware» which, structured in different levels
of organization and fine tuning, constitutes the universe in its different
materializations, the biosphere as a framework for life, and the vehicles for
the different manifestations of life in all their created levels). “For in him
we live, and move, and have our being” (Acts 17:28).
Santiago Escuain
