13.8 billion years ago, a mysterious singularity had a big bang. The super energy generated at the moment of the big bang was transformed into basic particles, which quickly evolved into basic elements such as hydrogen, helium, and lithium.
As the universe continues to expand, these basic elements have begun to undergo various evolutions, forming stars, planets, stars and other celestial bodies and the structure of the universe. At the same time, various laws of the universe are formed. With planets, a small part of asteroids evolved a perfect ecosystem, and life was born.
Life has undergone continuous evolution and evolution, and finally intelligent life was born, and it has gradually developed into an intelligent civilization. All this is so incredible, so how has all the evolution since the birth of the universe proceeded? Who is behind them controlling all this?
Before mankind entered the era of science and technology, people basically knew nothing about science. At that time, people attributed all phenomena in the natural world to the formation of this world as the creation of gods. The ancients believed that God created this universe, created everything in the universe, and formulated various laws of the universe.
But when mankind enters the age of science and technology, we have the power of science to get a preliminary glimpse of the truth behind nature. The natural wind, rain and thunder, the change of seasons, the resistance generated by people in the process of rapid advancement, the phenomenon of heat generation, etc., all of which can be explained by science.
Everything in nature cannot escape the scope of science. There is no god behind them, but the laws behind science dominate all of this. The core of science is also various laws, which are the four basic forces we usually call. They are gravity, electromagnetic force, strong nuclear force and weak nuclear force.
All the phenomena and rules of nature are dominated by these four basic forces, and all the evolution in the universe is actually carried out by these four basic forces. It can be said that when we study and explore science, we are actually studying these four forces. Scientists once said that the end of science is theology. In fact, this statement is correct to some extent.
When we have fully mastered the four basic forces, everything in nature will be controlled by us, and all mysteries in the universe will no longer be mysterious. Through the four basic forces, we can control everything in the universe. At that time, human beings are God of the universe.
Among the four basic forces, gravity is the one we are most familiar with. After mankind entered the age of science and technology, it was also gravity that was the first to be explored and studied by scientists. Newton’s law of universal gravitation is a basic explanation of gravity. We live on the earth and are able to walk freely instead of floating in the air because the gravity of the earth binds us firmly to the earth.
Gravity is related to the mass of an object. The greater the mass, the greater the gravitational force. The reason why the eight planets of the solar system can remain stable and run around the sun steadily is because the mass of the sun accounts for 99.86% of the mass of the entire solar system, which creates a strong gravitational force that absolutely dominates the solar system.
Electromagnetic force is the second natural force discovered by scientists after gravitation. It is the source of all conveniences in modern human life. Most of our current electronic products, including electricity, light, computers, TVs, mobile phones, networks, etc., are all related applications of electromagnetic force.
In nature, lightning and thunder, thunderstorms and other natural forces that make us fearful are also dominated by electromagnetic forces. The electric charge of the particle determines the strength of the electromagnetic force. The more the charge, the stronger the electromagnetic force will be. This is very similar to the fact that mass determines the strength of gravity.
In addition to the above gravitational and electromagnetic forces, we are familiar with them and have been widely used. Humans know less about the two basic forces, strong nuclear force and weak nuclear force. These two forces are important channels for exploring the microcosm. They are forces acting in the nucleus.
We all know that there is a micro world behind the macro world in our eyes, and the mystery and power of the micro world is far beyond our imagination. In the world of microscopic quantum mechanics, there are many phenomena that subvert the macroscopic theory. Although the microscopic world is very mysterious and complicated, they still have not escaped the scope of science or the scope of the four basic forces.
Strong nuclear force and weak nuclear force are important guarantees for exploring the atomic level of the microcosm. During the research process, scientists discovered that once the particle exceeds the subatomic scale, these two forces will completely lose their effect. Therefore, to explore and study these two forces, we can only do it in the microscopic world, which is why they were discovered later and more difficult to study than gravitational and electromagnetic forces.
The strong nuclear force confines quarks in protons and neutrons through gluons, and then tightly “bundles” the protons and neutrons together to fill the nucleus. Weak nuclear force seems to be simpler, and scientists have found that it only dominates certain forms of radioactive decay.
We can study and explore the electromagnetic forces of gravity from a macro perspective, making it easier to find breakthrough points and apply them to the development of science and technology in human civilization. Once we enter the microscopic quantum world, it is very difficult for us to explore. Therefore, human beings are only in the initial stage of exploration with strong nuclear power and weak nuclear power.
Some people might say that strong nuclear force and weak nuclear force are two kinds of forces at the micro level. Their power should be less than gravitational and electromagnetic forces. Is this really the case? If you think so, you are wrong.
In fact, among the four basic forces, gravitational force is the weakest, followed by electromagnetic force, and strong nuclear force and weak nuclear force are far stronger than them. Under the same experimental conditions, strong nuclear force is 100,000 times stronger than weak nuclear force, strong nuclear force is 100 times stronger than electromagnetic force, and electromagnetic force is 10 trillion trillion trillion times stronger than gravity (10^42 times).
It is precisely because the energy levels of strong nuclear power and weak nuclear power are so powerful that scientists have been actively studying these two forces, hoping to make them a powerful boost for human development. We must know that whether human civilization can be upgraded and become a higher civilization depends mainly on whether energy technology can develop qualitative changes.
For energy technology to achieve major breakthroughs, we need to explore and research more powerful energy. Strong nuclear power and weak nuclear power are undoubtedly the power that mankind expects to be able to obtain, but it is a pity that it is not as simple as we think to explore the mystery of these two powers.
In addition to exploring and studying the mysteries of the four basic forces, scientists expect to be able to unify these four forces to form a unified theoretical guide and formula. Humans first discovered and studied gravity, then electromagnetic force, and until now, scientists have not completed the unity of these two forces.
If we can unify these two forces and form a unified theory, then human civilization will be able to achieve a huge leap, and science and technology will usher in earth-shaking changes. This is just the unification of the two forces. If human beings realize the unification of the four forces and form a unified theory to manage the four forces, then we cannot imagine how strong human civilization will be.
As we said earlier, the universe is dominated by four basic forces. Under the action of the four forces, the universe has completed a series of evolutions, and now has the vast and mysterious universe. We feel that the universe is complicated and mysterious because we have not yet completed the unification of the four forces. If they are unified, the universe may have no secrets in front of mankind. At that time, the entire universe may be the back garden of mankind.
It can be seen that the unification of the four basic forces is of great significance to mankind. Since it is so important, it shows that the difficulty of unifying these four forces is far beyond our imagination. Einstein, the great scientist of the last century, has been trying to find a way to unify the four basic forces in the last 30 years of his life, but unfortunately he failed in the end.
In the 21st century, scientists are also actively exploring the four basic forces, step by step to find a way to unify them. Unifying the four basic forces will become the most important challenge facing scientists in the 21st century. Can this challenge succeed?
In fact, the possibility of success is very small. In the 21st century, human beings can take the research of the four forces to the next level. It is already a very remarkable achievement. Especially in the research and exploration of strong nuclear power and weak nuclear power, a qualitative breakthrough is needed. And the great goal of unifying the four basic forces is still too far away for mankind. It not only requires us to make more efforts, but also requires the precipitation of time and science.
As long as time accumulates to a certain level and human science settles to a level, we can hope to truly unify the four basic forces. At that time, human beings were the advanced civilization of the universe, and we are still at level 0.7, even one. Level civilization is not counted.