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Article

Greedy and needy

Greed – excessive or reprehensible acquisitiveness: “Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, with a continual lust for more” (Ephesians 4:19).

Game or reality

When I was a boy between ten and fourteen years old, I just loved the board game Monopoly. I did not take long after a rather modest phase, before I understood the game’s underlying and ruthless rule; – the more you buy of the available streets, and get a flush of two or three of the same kind, the higher the possibility is that you can build enough houses and hotels on the estates, to ruin your playmates when they are stranded there.

  The Monopoly board game

For that reason, I always borrowed from the bank, many times my starting capital, when I had the chance to purchase estates. I was reckless and self-centered in my gaming, and very often won the Monopoly game, because I had no limits in my desire for more and more streets.

Greed in America

This was only a game however, and I was young and immature. But its seems to me that in the 1980’s and 90’s, and in 2007 and 2008, that ruthless game was realized in its full potential in real financial America.

In their book with the elusive title; “Greed is Good”, Daniel Murphy and Matthew Robinson (2009), cites Gordon Gekko from the 1987 movie “Wall Street”:

 Michael Douglas as the greedy Gordon Gekko in the movie “Wall Street”

“Greed is good. Greed is right. Greed works. Greed clarifies. Greed cuts through and captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit. Greed in all of it’s forms, greed for life, for money, for knowledge, has marked the upward surge of mankind. And greed, you mark my words, will not only save Teldar Paper, but that other malfunctioning corporation called USA.” (Gordon Gekko)

Greed embedded in the American dream.

Robinson & Murphy link the deviant and criminal acts of American Corporate Business life to the concept of greed embedded in the American Dream. The American dream means by their definition; – to achieve more wealth than you already have, regardless of much you have. Here the individual’s striving for a better and more prosperous material life, go hand in hand with a general American notion that there are no limits to how wealthy you can be, if you put all your energy into it.

  Liberty at least for all Financial and corporate business people in America

At the same time, corporate life, institutions and laws seem to be built on a culture that promote selfish, competitive and even reckless behavior if you want to succeed in the game.

 Earlier the American dream was mostly realized by the white population. Nowadays not even the white population can achieve that dream.

Business comes before anything else.

The authors are pointing at the fact that the US. remains the only advanced industrial democracy without paid family leave, national health care , and without an extended family vacation policy. (That was written before “Obamacare” – now to be ended by Trump)      This is so, even though the US. ranks number 2 among 34 countries, in terms of the importance of the family.

Why is that? Robinson and Murphy claim that the needs of business are given precedence over everything else in the American institutional order. In other words, – material greed before human needs.

And this is a crucial point. Greed goes far beyond human needs, because greed is: “A selfish and excessive desire for more of something (as money) than is needed. A continual lust for more.” (Press Release Point, September 25th, 2016)

The Financial collapse on Wall Street 2008.

We have now experienced that this greed was the main contributor to the big 2008 Wall Street crash that the US. and Europe still strive to overcome the negative effects of. Not primarily the financial sector and its money makers are struggling to overcome the recession. The crisis primarily hit ordinary people, the vanishing middle class, public welfare, and stately institutions that had very little to do with the crash.

Financial Genius or Dangerous greedy Crook. Dick Fuld, the top leader of Lehman Brothers that started the world’s economic crash in 2008.

The top people, however, that had ordered the creation of the large and complex portfolio of unsecure loans and toxic assets, usually pulled out their own investments days before the crash. As for Lehman Brothers who started the crisis, Lawrence G. McDonald, the co-author of the New York Times best-seller “A Colossal Failure of Common Sense”, writes: “At Lehman, there were 24,992 people making money and eight guys losing it.” In other words, most of the staff were operating seriously while the top leaders behaved scrupulous.

Greed , capitalism and human needs.

Greed is not an American phenomenon, alone. In a continuum from normal pursuit for happiness and economic growth, via the desire for even more, greed is at the extreme end of the continuum, comparable to gluttony, and insatiable lust. We find it all over the world, most often however attached to global capitalism.

Humans have like animals an inbred or genetic disposition for self-preservation. That’s organic life, sustaining itself to a certain extent, in any environment. For species on top of the neuropsychological hierarchy, however, for primates like chimpanzees and human babies, the psychological environment plays a much more important role in sustaining life.

The initial and needed “lust for life” that is satisfied when parents or caretakers meet the child with loving care, is necessary to nourish the child physically and psychically.

Joy Of Life Lust For Life Girl Woman Left Out

When this love together with physical nourishment is lacking early in life, the physical health of the child will most likely be impaired.

There is a theory in dynamic psychology, that serious neglect, will not only predispose for mental illness. It will also most likely transform psychologically into unsaturated hunger for love, power, sex, fame or money.

Greed as compensation for neglect and lack of recognition.

The initial survival instincts in the pursuit for self-preservation, are very far from this state of all-compassing unsatiable hunger at the extreme end of the continuum from need to greed.  Such trans-formed psychological urges has nothing to do with  meeting needs. Here it’s  the basic human longing for recognition that has run amok. This most likely occurs when unconditoned love and recognition  have been lacking in the parental relation.

Very often this goes hand in hand with a family culture were recognition has been conditioned by economic success.

Psychologists like Benjamin(1988) and Schibbye(1992) have anchored their relational psychodynamic psychology on the foundations of Hegel’s philosophy of recognition and dialectics.

The desire for much more than necessary must not be gratified by the child’s parents, even though the desire should be recognized as ok. It is the yielding to the craving or desire that is wrong, not the desire in itself.

In my understanding of Hegel, it seems that the ubiquitous “human desire”, or “human craving”, must face opposition. If not the desire or craving will grow to infinity. And this opposition or unwillingness to gratify the desire for more, when basic physiological and psychological needs are met, – is a main contributor to psychological growth. Above  all it is crucial for developing the ability to perceive and empathize with the other.

           The capacity for feeling with the other. Empathy.

If any desire and requirement are fulfilled when growing up, and every urge achieve gratification, the person will paradoxically never feel gratified. And here we have the final product; – greed!

Greed and distribution of worlds wealth.

18 January 2016 the Oxfam report found that the 62 richest in the world had as much money as half the world’s population “- The explosive growth in their wealth has come at the expense of the poorest.”

There is no trickle down from rich to poor. And one year later, in January this year 2017, the British “Guardian” writes that; “The world’s eight richest billionaires control the same wealth between them as the poorest half of the globe’s population. In my opinion this is a dangerous demonstration of limitless greed.

Even the world’s Economic Forum(WEF) in Davos this year, addressed it as a big global problem.  In view of the gradual deregulation of the financial system since Reagan and Thatcher, there has been no real opposition to counteract the greed inherent in the game of globalized economy. In a psychological perspective to my opinion, there has not been any real “parental supervision” of the financial sector from neither the states or governments. There were little or no resistance to the extreme manifestations  of this sector’s financial transactions.

This has resulted in a situation where the need for earning money, have grown to infinity, and reached the stage of insatiable greed.

Greed is number three of the deadly sins.

But before greed kills the billionaires in their helicopters, swimming pools and yachts, it is most deadly for the poorest half of the population. Even the earlier privileged and now the less fortunate middle class, is vanishing by the hour in the US. And that fact is, as the American professor of Economy Robert Reich states, – a national disaster.

Psychological Universe would therefore recommend the financial sector to release their “capacity for greed”, in the game of Monopoly, instead of on the real life national and international financial arenas.

Even though we may not like the effects of capitalism, there has been versions of it with less uncontrolled greed, and more responsibility for the employees and the community.

 

Article

The Building Blocks of Nature

“They are everywhere I I”

Don’t you feel the itch?

On our trip to the city that I described yesterday, you and I entered a coffeehouse. We are still sitting there with our coffee cup in the hand, discussing. I have suggested that we should shut up for a moment and really concentrate on noticing that special non-decisive feeling under our skin and in our body.

After a while it seems like we are really, doing that. As if we notice that something is tingling and itching several places in our body simultaneously.

I tell you that I think I have the answer to this problem. It is not the bacteria, – many of them vital for us, nor is it the viruses, most of them a pain in the ass. It’s the most basic ingredients in the Universe at all. – The atoms, you may ask. – Even more basic, I can tell.

-Is it the protons and neutrons in the atomic nucleus, you might suggest? There is something even more basic, something indivisible and solid that is affecting us.

You excuse yourself for leaving the table, going  to the bathroom.

On returning, it’s you lecturing me! – There are actually two basic elements that most of our visible universe consists of, in addition to electrons, you can tell. And that is the quarks! You hand me your Iphone, and show me a photo.

 One of the first photographs in which quarks detected

Quarks, Quarks, Quarks, I love you!

-Totally fundamental particles, I cry out in ecstasy. – It’s not just any quarks either, but the wonderful up-quarks and down-quarks. The two quark types that were discovered at Stanford Linear Accelerator Center in 1968. I have checked it out carefully. They rotate around themselves in a so-called half-spin, inside the protons and neutrons, in the atomic nuclei in our body.

There’s an enormous number of them.

I found no one else who had calculated how many of these rotating quarks a 70kg (154.3 pounds) human contains in his body.

I found, however, that Jefferson Lab had calculated that a person of 154,3 pounds (70 kg) has about 7 *1027 atoms in them.

That’s 7, followed by 27 zeros: 7,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000. But how do you count with words when you pass 1000 billion? Look at the table:

(In the first column you find how many zeros, the second gives you the number and digits, the third column is the American word for it. The last column is the British word. )

3 1, 000 Thousand Thousand
6 1, 000, 000 Million Million
9 1, 000, 000, 000 Billion Thousand Million, or “Milliard”
12 1, 000, 000, 000, 000 Trillion Billion
15 1, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000 Quadrillion Thousand Billion
18 1, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000 Quintillion Trillion
21 1, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000 Sextillion Thousand Trillion
24 1, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000 Septillion Quadrillion
27 1, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000 Octillion Thousand Quadrillion
30 1, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000 Nonillion Sexillion

But the different atom types that there are about one hundred of in the world, they have different numbers of protons and neutrons in the nucleus.

They have also different numbers of electrons that sail around the core. (However, apart from the hydrogen that has only one proton in the nucleus without any neutron, all the other atoms equal number of protons in the nucleus as they have neutron there.)

Regarding oxygen, that 24% of our body consists of, there are eight protons in the nucleus. Then it must also be eight neutrons inside there. And besides 8 electrons hovering outside the core.

I must also remind you that the proton is always composed of three quarks, two up quarks and a down quark is.

Computer visualization of proton two up quarks and a down quark.

The hydrogen atom is very simple converting into quarks. Hydrogen is the only atom with one single proton in the nucleus. That makes two up quarks and one down quark, that is three quarks together.

A carbon atom is a bit more complex, – that is, six protons, and six neutrons. There are 6 x 2 up quarks and 6 x 1 down-quarks, that is a total of 18 moving quarks. Carbon atom with six protons and six neutrons in the nucleus, and a total of 6 electrons in two orbitals floating around.

But to calculate the number of quarks in the human body was still more complicated. I needed to know what percentage of the body the different atom types / elements constituted.

I therefore started body’s major constituents of Alberts, Molecular Biology of the Cell, 5th Edition. P. 47, 49. (Reprinted by Michael Graham Richard.)

What types of atoms does our body consist  of?

99% of the body consist of hydrogen (H), oxygen (O), carbon (C) and nitrogen (N).

An estimated 63% of the body are hydrogen atoms. 24% oxygen, 9% carbon and 3% nitrogen atoms. The residue of 0.9% is a mixture of salt, magnesium, phosphorus, sulfur, chlorine, potassium and calcium.

The hydrogen in the body: 63%
  • The hydrogen in your body constitutes 63% of the 7 octillions with atoms that we have in the body. When we use the calculator and take 7,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 atoms multiplied by 63% = 4.41 octillions protons and electrons, because they always match the number of protons. (But we do not include them this time, in our calculation of quarks)
  • Since each proton has two up quarks and a down quark, we must multiply the number of protons with 2 to get the number of up-quarks. There are 8.82 octillions of up-quarks.

To find the number of down-quarks in protons, we just multiply the proton number by 1. ie 4.41 octillions of down-quarks. In total we then have, by adding together these up and down-quarks, – 13.23 octillions of quarks in the hydrogen atoms in our body.

The oxygen in the body: 24%
  • The oxygen makes up 24% of us. The oxygen atom is bigger, ie richer in particles, and also neutrons in the nucleus. It has 8 protons, and the corresponding 8 neutrons in the nucleus. In addition, it has the 8 electrons flying around the core, but not belonging quarks. When we calculate the same way as with hydrogen, but now we also neutrons to be reckoned with:
  • 24% of 7 octillions of atoms is 1.68 octillions of oxygen atoms. To find the number of protons and neutrons in the nucleus, we must multiply the atomic number of 8. We then get 1.68 x 8 protons = 13.44 octillions of protons + 1.68 x 8 neutrons = 13.44 octillions of neutrons.
  • Each of protons has two up-quarks.: That makes; 13.44 x 2 = 26.88 octillions of up-quarks. In addition, protons have 1 down quark each. That makes 13.44 x 1 = 13.44 octillions of down-quarks. Conversely neutrons have 2 down-quarks each, and one up- quark. Then we can just use math for proton quarks, but change the number of up-quarks with the number of down-quarks. We then get: 26.88 down- quarks and 13.44 up-quarks.
  • That adds up to 40.32 down-quarks and 40.32 up-quarks. In total we have then by adding together these up and down- quarks, 80.64 octillions of quarks in oxygen atoms in our body.
The carbon in the body: 9%
  • The same principle of calculation applies to carbon that 9% of the body consists of. Overall it 630 septillion atoms, thus a smaller amount of atoms than oxygen and hydrogen. Since carbon has six protons and six neutrons in the nucleus, we need to multiply the number of atoms first with 6 to find out how many protons and neutrons this becomes. Then we need to multiply these (630 septillions x 6) with 2, to determine the number of up-quarks in the protons and then with 1, to find the down-quarks. Regarding neutrons we need to multiply the down-quarks with 2 and up-quarks with 1.
  • The calculation will in all simplicity be: 7octillions 560 spetillions of up-quarks in the  protons, and 3 octillions 70 septillions of down-quarks in the  protons. The neutrons will have the same total number of quarks, but with reverse distribution between up and down quarks, ie 7 kvadrilliarder 560 down-quarks and 3 kvadrilliarder 780 quadrillion up-quarks. In total we have then by adding together these up and down quarks, 22.68 kvadrilliarder quarks in the carbon atoms in our body.
The nitrogen in the body: 3%

The nitrogen constitutes only 3% of our body’s atoms.  Nitrogen has seven protons and seven neutrons in the nucleus. We then perform the same arithmetic operation as previously, and will end up with a total  of 4.41 octillions of up-quarks and 4.41 octillions of down-quarks. In total we then have  by adding together these up and down quarks, – 8.82 octillions of quarks in our body nitrogen.

Other contents: 0.9%
  • Salt, magnesium, phosphorus, sulfur, chlorine, potassium and calcium in the body. These ingredients constitute only 0.9% of the total substances. Calculated into atoms this percentage provides for only roughly  estimated, –  5.5 octillion quarks.

The total number of up and down-quarks in the body = 125.31 octillions, plus 5.5 octillions from other substances = 130.87 octillions.

Let’s say there are about 130 octillions of quarks on average, in an adult weighing 154.3 pounds (70 kg). That is to say:

130,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 up and down-quarks in your body.

Three generations of quarks; up-and down quarks, charm and strange-quarks, and the most heavy, – top and bottom-quarks.

Have you gone mad?

You look at me dumbfounding. – What’s the use of this quantitative knowledge then, you ask.

– Isn’t it amazing how we literally burst with bustling life, I say excited. – Isn’t it breathtaking, knowing it, – all that spin, revolving, rotating  and spiralaling inside each of our physical universe!

– Don’t we get  a deepened respect and reverence for nature, that we all are part of.  And all those physicists who have bothered to research on this myriad of quarks and microparticles that every cell of us contains.

You are not dismissive of the idea. But you ask me where the psychology is in all this. You’re also  familiar with the idea of appreciating the complexity and structure of the universe. From the smallest to the largest constituents.

When I look at you and claim that I am well on the way to build a bridge from the apparent weak-willed  quarks,  to us as strong-willed humans.

– What should be the bridge then, you ask while putting your coffee cup upside down, before swallowing the last drops of the cortado.

They’re so social!

– Who? – The quarks, I shout triumphantly. – They can’t bear to be alone. They always relate to other quarks of the same generation. That is, the up and down-quarks always relate to another up or down-quark.

It can either be in a relation of three, for example two up-quarks with a down-quark. Or two down-quarks with an up-quark. Such a relationship is called a baryon, and we have seen many of these in the calculations above with protons and neutrons.

Or they may form a relationship called a meson, then it’s a quark in relation to its total contrast, – an anti-quark!

The importance of trilateral Cooperation.

As I understand the physics so far, it is the triparty cooperation between three quarks, two up-quarks and one down-quark, or two down and one up-quark, ie the baryons, that we humans consist of.

– But in that calculation with fundamental and indivisible particles, we also must add the electrons, you remind me.

– With all fairness, I admit. – And we have the same number of electrons in our body as we have protons. And electrons are also as you say fundamental, ie they consist of nothing , that is,- they are indivisible.

– But then, – where is the bridge here, you ask, pointing into the air.

– I just think there’s something very basic in this reality, that nothing can exist or have identity without a relation to something else. That something might also be someone else, that gives it identity, or enable it to define itself in terms of the other, and vice versa. It seems to be like this all the way from micro to macrocosm, and also in the middle of the spectrum where we humans are to survive psychologically.

– Are we two only like quark-anti-quark and unstable, then?(photo)

– Yeah, but if we make a child today, I promise, – we’ll become much more stable, according the quark-law.

– My God, you say, looking at your watch, knowing that you have a schedule for the day. – Couldn’t you have said this immediately!

I shake my head.

– I couldn’t have said it if I hadn’t spent weeks trying to understand a little of this physics. And not even every physicists are able to keep track of all this without using complicated mathematical formulas together with advanced research.

And yet we two have mostly been talking about the up and down-quarks!

– I still have a little headache, I say. – There is so much left to include about the the other four quark types. Not to mention the four forces of the universe, that keep everything together as we experience it from day to day. And there’s so much I do not understand. It has taken my weeks only to grasp how little I understand!

– Why don’t we leave the rest to the  particle physicists, you suggest.

– With all respect. And my butt is itching, after all the sitting on this barstool.

-It is not the barstool, you say, – it’s your ass full of quarks!

– “Bottom-quarks” then, I laugh.

Three generations of quarks.  The material world we know mainly consists of the two up and down-quarks on top of the drawing + electrons.

 

 Background research:

CERN, “The Standard Model”.

Berkeley Lab, University of Berkeley, “The particle Adventure”.

CPEP: Contemporary Physics Education Program.

De er overalt II

Kjenner du ikke at det kribler?

På vår tur til byen som jeg beskrev i går, har du og jeg gått innom kaffebaren. Vi sitter der fortsatt med kaffekoppen i hånden og diskuterer.  Jeg har sagt at vi skal holde kjeft et øyeblikk og virkelig konsentrere oss om å kjenne etter om vi merker noe spesielt.

Etter en stund er det akkurat som om vi gjør det. Som om vi merker at det faktisk kribler og klør flere steder i kroppen samtidig.  Jeg sier til deg at jeg tror jeg har svaret.

Det er ikke selve atomene, det er heller ikke protonene og nøytronene i atomkjernen. Det er noe enda mer grunnleggende, noe udelelig og solid som påvirker oss. Det er faktisk de to grunnelementene som mesteparten av vårt synlige univers består av i tillegg til elektronene: Nemlig kvarkene.

     Et av de første fotografiene der kvarker påvises

Kvark Kvark Kvark, I love you!

-Helt grunnleggende partikler.

Det er ikke bare hvilke som helst kvarker heller, men opp-kvarkene og ned-kvarkene. De to kvarktypene som ble oppdaget ved Stanford Linear Accelerator Center i 1968. Jeg har sjekket det nøye. De roterer rundt seg selv i et såkalt halv-spinn inni protonene og nøytronene i atomkjernene i kroppen vår.

-Det er enormt mange av dem.

Jeg fant ingen andre som hadde regnet ut hvor mange av disse roterende kvarkene et menneske på 70 kg har i kroppen sin. Jeg fant imidlertid at Jefferson Lab hadde regnet ut at en person på 70 kg har omtrent 7*1027 atomer i seg. Det er 7 etterfulgt av 27 nuller: 7,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000.

Men de ulike atomtypene som det finnes rundt hundre av i verden, har forskjellige antall protoner og nøytroner i kjernen. Og forskjellig antall elektroner som seiler rundt kjernen. (Men bortsett fra hydrogen som bare har 1 proton i kjernen uten noe nøytron, har alle de andre atomene like mange protoner i kjernen som de har av nøytroner der.)

Når det gjelder oksygen som 24% av kroppen vår består av, er det åtte protoner i atomkjernen. Da må det også være åtte nøytroner inni der. Og dessuten 8 elektroner som svever utenfor kjernen.

 

Jeg må også minne om at protonet alltid består av tre kvarker, hvorav to er opp-kvarker og en er ned-kvark.

   Computer visualisering av protonets to opp-kvarker og en ned-kvark.

Hydrogenatomet er ganske enkelt å omregne i kvarker. Med det eneste atomet med bare ett proton i kjernen, blir det to opp-kvarker, og en ned-kvark, altså tre kvarker tilsammen. Et karbonatom er litt mer sammensatt, – dvs. det har seks protoner og seks nøytroner. Det blir 6 x 2 opp-kvarker, og 6 x 1 ned-kvarker, dvs totalt 18 kvarker som rører på seg.

 Figurlig fremstilling av karbonatomet med 6 protoner og 6 nøytroner i kjernen, og til sammen 6 elektroner i to orbitaler svevende rundt. 

Men å regne ut antallet kvarker i menneskekroppen var likevel mer komplisert. For jeg trengte å vite hvor mange prosent av kroppen de forskjellige atomtypene/grunnstoffene utgjorde.

Jeg tok derfor utgangspunkt i kroppens hovedbestanddeler fra Alberts, Molecular Biology of the Cell, 5th Edition. P. 47, 49. (Gjengitt av Michael Graham Richard. )

Hvilke typer atomer består kroppen vår av?

99% av kroppen består av hydrogen (H), oksygen (O), karbon (C), og nitrogen (N).

Anslagsvis er 63% av kroppen hydrogen. 24% er oksygen. 9% er karbon og 3% er nitrogen. Resten 0.9 % er en blanding av salt, magnesium, fosfor, svovel, klor kalium og kalsium.

Hydrogenet i kroppen: 63%

  • Hydrogenet i oss utgjør 63% av de 7 kvadrilliardene med atomene som vi har i kroppen. Da tar vi frem kalkulatoren og får 7.000.000.000.000.000.000.000.000.000 atomer multiplisert med 63% = 4.41 kvadrilliarder protoner (og elektroner, men de tar vi ikke med nå)
  • Siden hvert proton har to opp-kvarker og en ned-kvark, må vi multiplisere antall protoner med 2 for å få tallet på opp-kvarkene. Det blir 8,82 kvadrilliarder opp-kvarker. For å finne antall ned-kvarker i protonene, må vi bare multiplisere protontallet med 1. dvs. 4,41 kvadrilliarder ned-kvarker. Totalt har vi da ved å legge sammen disse opp og ned-kvarkene, 13,23 kvadrilliarder kvarker i hydrogenatomene i kroppen vår.

Oksygenet i kroppen:  24%

  • Oksygenet utgjør 24% av oss. Oksygenatomet er større dvs. rikere på partikler, og har også nøytroner i atomkjernen. Det har 8 protoner, og tilsvarende 8 nøytroner i kjernen. I tillegg har det de 8 elektronene som flyr rundt kjernen, men som ikke tilhører kvarkene. Da regner vi på samme måte som med hydrogen, men nå har vi også nøytroner å regne med:
  • 24% av 7 kvadrilliarder atomer er 1,68 kvadrilliarder oksygenatomer. For å finne antall protoner og nøytroner i kjernen, må vi multiplisere atomantallet med 8. Vi får da 1.68 x 8 protoner =13,44 kvadrilliarder protoner, + 1,68 x 8 nøytroner = 13,44 kvadrilliarder nøytroner.
  • Hver av protonene har to opp-kvarker, så det blir; 13,44 x 2 = 26,88 kvadrilliarder opp-kvarker. I tillegg har protonene 1 ned-kvark hver. Det blir 13.44 x 1 = 13.44 kvadrillioner ned-kvarker. Omvendt har nøytronene 2 ned-kvarker hver, og en opp-kvark. Da kan vi bare bruke regnestykket for proton kvarkene, men bytte antallet opp-kvarker med antallet ned-kvarker. Vi får da: 26,88 ned-kvarker og 13.44 opp-kvarker. Det blir til sammen 40,32 ned-kvarker og 40,32 opp-kvarker. Totalt har vi da ved å legge sammen disse opp og ned-kvarkene, 80,64 kvadrilliarder kvarker i oksygenatomene i kroppen vår.

Karbonet i kroppen:  9%

  • Det samme prinsippet for utregning gjelder for karbon som 9% av kroppen består av. Totalt er det 630 kvadrillioner atomer, altså et mindre antall atomer enn for oksygen og hydrogen. Siden karbonatomet har 6 protoner og seks nøytroner i kjernen, må vi multiplisere antallet atomer først med 6 for å finne ut hvor mange protoner og nøytroner dette blir. Deretter må vi multiplisere disse (630 kvadrillioner x 6) med 2, for å finne antall opp-kvarker i protonene, og deretter med 1, for å finne ned-kvarkene. Når det gjelder nøytronene må vi multiplisere ned-kvarkene med 2 og opp-kvarkene med 1.
  • Regnestykket blir i all enkelhet. 7 kvadrilliarder 560 kvadrillioner opp-kvarker i protonene, og 3 kvadrilliarder 780 kvadrillioner ned-kvarker i protonene. For nøytronene blir det det samme totalantall kvarker men med omvendt fordeling mellom opp og ned-kvarkene, altså 7 kvadrilliarder 560 ned-kvarker og 3 kvadrilliarder 780 kvadrillioner opp-kvarker. Totalt har vi da ved å legge sammen disse opp og ned-kvarkene, 22,68 kvadrilliarder kvarker i karbonatomene i kroppen vår.

Nitrogenet i kroppen: 3%

Nitrogenet som bare utgjør  3% av kroppens atomer, har 7 protoner og 7 nøytroner i atomkjernen. Vi gjennomfører samme regneoperasjon som tidligere og får tilsammen 4,41 kvadrilliarder opp-kvarker og 4,41 kvadrilliarder ned-kvarker. Totalt har vi da ved å legge sammen disse opp og ned-kvarkene, 8,82 kvadrilliarder kvarker i nitrogenatomene i kroppen vår.

Ander stoffer: 0.9%

  • Salt, magnesium, fosfor, svovel, klor kalium og kalsium i kroppen: Disse atomene utgjør bare 0.9% av atomene og gir bare et ubetydelig og anslagsvis estimat på 5.5 kvadrilliarder kvarker.

Samlet antall opp og ned-kvarker i kroppen = 125.31 kvadrilliarder, pluss 5,5 kvadrilliarder fra andre stoffer = 130,87 kvadrilliarder.

La oss si 130 kvadrilliarder kvarker i gjennomsnitt hos et voksent menneske på 70 kg. Det vil si:

130.000.000.000.000.000.000.000.000.000 opp og-ned kvarker i din kropp.
Er du blitt gal?

Du ser på meg hoderystende. – Hva skal vi med denne kvantitative kunnskapen da, spør du. – Men er det ikke fantastisk hva vi bærer på av yrende liv, sier jeg oppglødd. Er det ikke til å ta pusten fra oss, alt det som snurrer, roterer og spinner så mye og smått inni hvert vårt fysiske univers! Får vi ikke dyp respekt og ærbødighet for naturen vi er en del av og alle de fysikerne som har giddet å forske på dette mylderet av kvarker og mikropartikler som hver celle i oss rommer.

Du er ikke avvisende til den tanken, men spør meg hvor psykologien er i alt dette, bortsett fra å verdsette kompleksiteten og oppbyggingen av universet fra de minste til de største bestanddelene. Da ser jeg på deg og påstår at jeg er på god vei til bygge en bro fra de tilsynelatende viljeløse kvarkene til oss som mennesker.

– Hva skulle den broen være da, spør du og setter kaffekoppen på høykant mens du tømmer siste rest av cortadoen i munnen.

 

Kvarkene orker ikke ensomhet.

-De er så sosiale! – Hvem da? – Kvarkene, roper jeg triumferende.      – De orker ikke å være alene. De knytter seg alltid til andre kvarker av samme generasjon. Det vil si at opp- og ned kvarkene knytter seg alltid til andre opp eller ned-kvarker.

Det kan enten være i en relasjon på tre for eksempel to opp-kvarker sammen med en ned-kvark. Eller to ned-kvarker sammen med en opp-kvark. Da kalles relasjonen et baryon, som vi har sett i regnestykkene ovenfor med protoner og nøytroner.

Eller relasjonen kan være parforhold som kalles et meson, da er det en kvark som knytter seg til sin totale motsetning, – en anti-kvark!

Betydningen av tre-parts samarbeid

Slik jeg har forstått fysikken så langt er det treparts samarbeidet mellom tre kvarker, to opp-kvarker og en ned-kvark eller to ned og en opp-kvark, altså baryoner, som vi mennesker består av.

– I tillegg bør jo nevnes elektronene, sier du. – Vi har jo like mange elektroner i oss som vi har protoner. Og elektronene er jo også fundamentale, det vil si de består ikke av noe annet, de er udelelige. – Jeg har også forstått det sånn, sier jeg.

– Men så, – hvor er broen her, spør du og peker ut i lufta. – Jeg bare tror det er noe helt grunnleggende at ingenting i denne virkeligheten kan eksistere eller ha identitet uten i en relasjon til noe annet, noen andre, som det eller den definerer seg utfra og eksisterer i forhold til. Sånn er det fra mikro til makrokosmos, og også midt i spekteret der vi mennesker skal overleve psykologisk.

           –  Er vi liksom kvark-anti-kvark og ustabile, vi da, – vi som bare er to?    -Ja, men hvis vi lager et barn blir vi jo mer stabile ifølge kvarke-loven.

– Herregud, sier du, og ser på klokka vel vitende om at du har en timeplan for dagen. – Kunne du ikke sagt dette med engang. Jeg rister på hodet.

– Jeg kunne ikke sagt det hvis jeg ikke hadde brukt ukevis på å prøve å forstå litt av denne fysikken. Og selv ikke alle fysikere klarer å holde styr på alt dette uten å bruke kompliserte matematiske formler sammen med avansert forskning.

Og enda har vi to stort sett bare snakket om opp-og ned kvarkene.   – Jeg har fortsatt litt vondt i hodet, sier jeg. – Det er så mye jeg ikke skjønner. – Nå overlater vi resten til elementærpartikkel fysikerne, sier du. – Ja, svarer jeg, for jeg kribler litt i baken etter all sittingen på denne barkrakken.

Det er ikke barkrakken sier du, det er rumpa di som er full av kvarker.

-“Bottom quarks” da, som de kalles på engelsk!