The Quest For Unity In The Microcosmic

June 05, 1991|By Reviewed by Peter Gorner, a Tribune writer.

Atom: Journey Across the Subatomic Cosmos

By Isaac Asimov

Dutton, 336 pages, $21.95

If you want to know what the supporters of the $8 billion superconducting supercollider are really after, here`s a handy offering from Isaac Asimov.

The latest book-No. 450, or thereabouts-by the legendary science writer finds him tackling what would seem to be a simple problem: How finely can a piece of matter be divided?

Crush a pebble to dust, for instance, then try to get to the bottom of the thing.

``This is not really a practical game because it`s very hard to handle a grain of dust and try to break it up further,`` Asimov notes. ``But you can imagine. ...``

Almost immediately, Asimov finds himself dealing with objects that are far too small to see, or even to imagine directly.

``Nevertheless,`` he points out, ``certain ancient Greek philosophers asked themselves this question and started a chain of thought that is still occupying thinkers to this day, 25 centuries later.``

``Atom`` is a virtuosic tour-de-force that links the infinitely small and bewilderingly complex microcosmos of subatomic particles to people, planets, galaxies and the ultimate end of the universe.

Asimov presents the Chinese box-like structure of the atom. He peruses the discoveries behind the analysis of light and electricity, and their constituent quanta, and electrons, the building blocks of atoms.

He explores the fundamental interactions of nature-the so-called strong, electromagnetic, weak and gravitational forces that influence atoms as well as the sun and other heavenly bodies.

Citing the work of hundreds of scientists, Asimov tells how elements were discovered and their atomic weights deduced. Moving from the ancient thinkers to their modern counterparts, he examines the findings that led to our knowledge of radiation, nuclear fisson and fusion, and cosmic rays.

He shows how scientists came to mimic nature writ small by building particle accelerators, and what the supercollider will be expected to do.

Asimov embarks on a grand tour of the atomic nucleus, where we find bags of particles called quarks, which build hadrons, the fundamental matter of the universe.

Neutrinos, antineutrinos, bosons, muons, tauons-none of the growing families of confusing critters that science is able to deduce escapes Asimov`s tireless gaze.

And the deeper that science has been able to peer into the microcosmos, the more particles have been postulated.

``Where this will go, I cannot say,`` Asimov notes. ``There seems no point in trying to outline the current thinking, for it is bound to change and to be modified almost from day to day. Moreover, none of it has any observational backing at all, so that it remains mere speculation.``

We know now that the universe is expanding, which means it was slightly smaller last year than it is today. Perhaps it may expand forever. But if we look back into the past, the universe grows smaller and smaller. At some point, it must have begun.

Scientists dream of a single set of equations that they can emblazon on a sweat shirt someday; a unified theory that covers all the particles that exist in the universe and all their interactions.

``This we need,`` Asimov writes, ``for a firm picture of the universe that began with a single type of particle that as it gradually cooled, divided itself into the grand variety of effects we experience today.``