"David Armstrong wants to educate people about the weak force. In a press release from the College of William and Mary, Joseph McClain introduces us to the physicist who thinks people should appreciate a property of the universe without which life could not exist.
"Less familiar to the lay public, he said, are the two nuclear forces.
The strong force holds together the protons and neutrons (and their constituent quarks) in the nucleus. The last, and least familiar, of the fundamental interactions is the weak force, responsible for certain kinds of radioactive decay."
“Unlike those other interactions, I can’t give you an example of something that’s held together by the weak force,” Armstrong said. “But the weak force is incredibly important, because life wouldn’t exist without it.”
He pointed out that the fusion process in the sun, whereby hydrogen atoms glom onto one another to become helium, is an example of the weak force in action. A critical step in that reaction chain takes place through the weak force, so in fact the weak force drives the sun’s nuclear furnace.
One of the weird characteristics of the weak force, he explains, is that it violates a symmetry of nature called parity. “And, for scientists, the odd-one-out parity status of the weak force gives Armstrong and other physicists an entry point into the pursuit of new physics, beyond the Standard Model.”
This implies that the “Standard Model” is not a complete account of matter and energy. So yes, young physics student, there is more to discover. The rest of us can be thankful that we have a beautiful star, the sun, giving us a remarkably constant flow of energy to the Earth.
“Unlike those other interactions, I can’t give you an example of something that’s held together by the weak force,” Armstrong said. “But the weak force is incredibly important, because life wouldn’t exist without it.”
He pointed out that the fusion process in the sun, whereby hydrogen atoms glom onto one another to become helium, is an example of the weak force in action. A critical step in that reaction chain takes place through the weak force, so in fact the weak force drives the sun’s nuclear furnace.
One of the weird characteristics of the weak force, he explains, is that it violates a symmetry of nature called parity. “And, for scientists, the odd-one-out parity status of the weak force gives Armstrong and other physicists an entry point into the pursuit of new physics, beyond the Standard Model.”
This implies that the “Standard Model” is not a complete account of matter and energy. So yes, young physics student, there is more to discover. The rest of us can be thankful that we have a beautiful star, the sun, giving us a remarkably constant flow of energy to the Earth.
Paul wrote, “God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong” (I Corinthians 1:27). Isn’t it just like God to amaze modern physicists with something they call “weak” that turns out to be critical for life?"
CEH