where I live today. (I stole the picture from a local news site, it's not mine.) Going out wasn't really an option for me. Much thanks to my hatred of cold, bad roads, and a certain snow blower piling snow onto my car. What do I do when I'm snowed in? Drink lots of tea, read, watch movies, and learn me some stuff on Youtube. I eventually came across this video from one of my favorite Youtubers:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WUnDsNL_5nk
I strongly urge you to watch it before reading on. It's fascinating. And if you haven't heard of or seen anything from John and Hank Green, AKA the vlogbrothers, you really should.
Anyways, I got to thinking. I know the whole Higgs Boson thing is old news by now, and to be completely honest, I'm mostly concerned with what this means for stories. I'm one of those people who prizes scientific accuracy (as far as is possible) in writing of any kind. One statement in particular piqued my attention. At about 3:30 Hank says "The idea is that the Higgs field, which is the field that gives things mass, exists throughout the entire universe." Does that mean that OUTSIDE the universe it doesn't exist? If not, does mass just behave differently,or is it not there at all? How crazy would it be to leave the universe and suddenly have no mass? Would a human even survive a change in mass? Is a human without mass a human?
I looked into it more. Evidently it would take hundreds of years to even leave the solar system. The universe would take...millions of years? Billions? The answers weren't all completely clear and I don't need an exact number. Because one way or another, that's a really long time. It has pretty good story potential in my mind. It also excites me for future space exploration. I'm reasonably certain I won't be alive if and when exploration beyond this universe begins. If time travel ever exists - and occurs before outer-universe travel- I'd pay every dollar and cent I own to find out what else is out there and what happens to mass outside of our universe.
If you have any further insight that might clear up some of my questions, please post it in the comments! I know that I might be pretty..off..on certain points and I'd like to be set straight if I am.
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