Er, I just want to point out that matter is a useful construct but our physical existence consists of waves. Space/time itself is but a quality of the extension of field, which I assert is a wave phenomenon.
We are not even sure how to explain mass; hopefully, the Fermilab tests will confirm the existence of the Higgs field/boson.
A MATTER-WAVE INTERFEROMETER FOR LARGE MOLECULES has been devised and demonstrated for the first time. For many years scientists have studied the proposition that things we normally think of as particles, such as electrons, should also have wave properties. Indeed studies of beams of electrons, neutrons, even whole atoms, have confirmed that particles can be viewed as a series of traveling waves which diffracted when they pass through a grating or through slits. These waves could even interfere with each other, resulting in characteristic patterns captured by particle detectors. In this way, in 1999 Anton Zeilinger and his colleagues at the University of Vienna demonstrated the wave nature of carbon-60 molecules by diffracting them (in their wave manifestation) from a grating (Update 453). Now the same group, using a full interferometer consisting of three gratings with wider grating spacings and a more efficient detector setup, observe a sharp interference pattern. Moreover, because the beam of particles used, carbon-70 molecules at a temperature of 900 K, are themselves in an excited state (undergoing 3 rotational and 204 vibrational modes of internal motion), it should be possible to study the way in which an atom wave, or in this case a macromolecular wave, becomes decoherent (that is, loses its wavelike character) because of thermal motions and other interactions with its environment. Thus this type of interferometer experiment will be useful in studying the borderland between the quantum and classical worlds. The researchers (contact Bjorn Brezger, bjoern@brezger.de, University of Vienna) are aiming to study the wave properties of even larger composite objects, mid- sized proteins. (Brezger et al., Physical Review Letters, 11 March 2002; see also www.quantum.univie.ac.at)
General introduction for lurkers: The Standard Model and the Higgs boson
Half right.
I've always liked this quote. Einstein was also an armchair philosopher.
"Look hard" at particles and they seem to resolve into waves, and they always retain at least some small indication of what I also believe is their fundamental "wave nature". Seeking experimental verification of the Higgs Boson is a worthwhile scientific endeavor but it is, IMHO, "more of the same"; i.e. we are filling out the "chart" of subatomic particles. Walker discusses this at length, as well (he really does cover a lot of territory, and competently). Bottom line for me is that particleness and its attendant hard materiality are manifestations of something more fundamental and wavelike.
What intrigues me and what I seldom see discussed is the quantized nature of everything at atomic and subatomic levels. Electrons "jump" from energy level to energy level seemingly instantaneously. Wavelength "cuts off" at the Planck length (granted it is an incredibly short length). Yet all is in actuality motion, vibration, wave activity. Does this imply that physical reality flashes on and off at incredibly short time intervals, like the still frames of a motion picture? Our consciousness certainly has no difficulty putting the picture of motion together in our minds to yield a smooth simile of reality but that picture is nonetheless based upon a series of still frames. Is there a sort of natural "putting together" mode for mind and consciousness which the motion picture industry exploits?
This is written just to drive everyone crazy (and perhaps to show my ignorance) ... ;-}