This has to be one of my favourite quotes of all time, not only does it come from the genius that is Douglas Adams but unlike many other of his quotes (all of which are equally amazing), this has some real world direct application, because if you haven't noticed space is infact big, well hugely ginormously massively big. To be honest there's a very good chance that it is in fact infinitely big, either that or some inescapable howevermany-dimension shape that is too mindbogglingly complicated to even begin to conceive. And yet despite all of its incomprehensibleness, here we are living in it, amazing right (hence the title).
Why you may ask has this sudden spurring for writing about the universe come about, i mean it's not like it's going to disappear anytime soon (well hopefully it shouldn't). Well firstly i came about a video posted on science.memebase.com then, since i'm very thorough in my post researches (and not that everyday i do the same thing, this time was definitely for research), i looked on the bbc news webpage science section and voila, the first story was about the new data from Fermilab that support the current findings at the LHC that hint at the existence of the higgs boson.
OK, i know that the higgs boson is a fundamental particle, a building block of everything, and so is on the opposite side of the scale to the universe, but hey ho, it's my blog and i think that it's an entirely relative article, well relative enough to support a post about the universe and give a reason to write one. Now the hope is that by the end of the year we should know whether the higgs boson exists or not, and so by the end of the year will could very potentially be a little step closer to understanding the universe (though still very far from complete understanding, but definitely closer than we ever have been).
Imagine that, soon we could know the basic ingredients of... well... um everything, with the standard model of particle physics complete and concise. Of course we could also end up the higgs boson being disproved and in need of another model (well a adapted model, since the standard model is working quite well atm). But you know what's even better than the completion of the model, the fact that soon Prof. Brian Cox, will soon be back on our TV screens explaining all this to us, with no doubt some weird metaphor and some epic sweeping camera shots, and of course the obligatory trip to CERN.
Of course there is still a whole lot more to understand about the universe as previously mentioned, and tbh some of the universe could very well turn out to be completely incomprehensible without anyway of proving any theory or model thought of in theoretical physics. And since next year i'll be off to study engineering, and so in 5 years (if all goes well) i could potentially be working on the next big thing in science (depending on the stream i go into, other things i could be doing in 5 years includes designing cars, buildings or gadgets, or even just continuing with study because i can't be bothered to find a proper job).
And on a slightly off topic note please have a look at this petition (and it would be helpful if you could also sign it, only of course if you agree,... or are indifferent, either is a good enough reason to sign it): http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/6271
What is the next big thing? Well there's little way of knowing what progress science will make in the next 5 years, we could still be stuck pondering string theory and floundering over dark matter. But one thing is for certain and that is that there will always be something else. Something else to be discovered, proved or standardised such is the nature of the universe to always have something else hidden from our prying eyes.
So all in all, what this post essentially boils down to, even if you're not actually interested in all the science involved, is that every once a while everyone should take a few moments to just simply think about the wonderfully weird universe we currently reside in, and hopefully will continue to do so for the foreseeable and unforeseeable future. And in case you still need a bit of help below is the aforementioned video, and another Douglas Adams quote:
"The world is a thing of utter inordinate complexity and richness and strangeness that is absolutely awesome. I mean the idea that such complexity can arise not only out of such simplicity, but probably absolutely out of nothing, is the most fabulous extraordinary idea. And once you get some kind of inkling of how that might have happened, it's just wonderful. And … the opportunity to spend 70 or 80 years of your life in such a universe is time well spent as far as I am concerned."
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