We are light ... and unto light we'll always be ...

“Whatever came to be in him, found life, life for the light of men.  The light shines on in darkness, a darkness that did not overcome it.” John 1:4-5.

                I've always struggled with John’s gospel.  Was he inhaling too much incense to be so bold, so “out there,” so different from others in his proclamation?  As I've matured, I've wrestled with John’s writing and come to appreciate it more.  As a physicist, I’ve discovered many of my colleagues and friends do not believe that science has any position in faith and vice-versa.  However, I find many discoveries in science support the mysteries in faith, in particular, John’s reference to Jesus being “the light.”  

                Einstein introduced an elegant equation; Energy = mass x the speed of light ^² or E = mc².  When small particles approach the speed of light, their masses essentially increase in the form of energy. Mass and energy become interchangeable.  Large particle accelerators such as those at Fermilab in Chicago and CERN in Switzerland have shown this to be true. 

                Consider pulling two attracting magnets apart separating them by a short distance.  Energy is required to pull them apart.  Where is the energy stored?  Somewhere in the magnetic field between them, for if I let them go, they’ll naturally fly back together.  Though the two-magnet system temporarily gained mass in the field between them, it is too small, infinitesimally so as to be significant to the overall mass.  Yet, on the atomic level, this energy is extremely significant. Bear with me, the incense hasn't got to me yet.

                You, the reader, are composed of atoms.  Atoms are composed of electrons whizzing around the nucleus containing protons and neutrons.  Even smaller particles, quarks, compose neutrons and protons.  Consider a hydrogen atom by far the most plentiful atom in the body.  Scale this hydrogen atom up to the size of a football field.  The relative size of the nucleus would be a sphere having the diameter of a dime.  Place the nucleus (sphere) on the 50-yard line.  Hydrogen’s single electron, a tiny speck, would then be found on the back line of the end zone, sweeping out a large diameter orbit from end zone to end zone leaving vast open empty space between it and the nuclear sphere at mid-field. 

                The nucleus, the sphere on the 50-yard line contains one proton comprised of three quarks vibrating, traveling incredibly fast … so fast that their mass in motion is 938 MeV/c² compared to the static 12 MeV/c² collective mass of the three quarks as one knows them classically (without Einstein’s contribution.  Other than perspective, the units are not important to the reader’s understanding.)  In other words, the 3-quark individual mass-like points flying to and fro in the nucleus (sphere) can only account for 1.3% of the recorded or experimental mass (12/938 x 100%).  Thus, the nucleus is also empty space with its mass in the form of energy!  Well over 98% of the atom is empty space, energy, electromagnetic energy … light.  You, my guest, composed of atoms, is composed of light.

                All life is derived from light.  When I hear the expression about children being “bundles of energy,” I smile because we got it right J.  And what do we know about energy?  Though many ways to calculate it exist, energy remains a mystery.  As Richard Feynman, a distinguished Nobel laureate stated, “We have no knowledge of what energy is ….  Energy is an abstract thing that does not tell us the mechanism or the reasons for the various formulas.”
               Amazing?  Fantastic?  More than that.  Created in His/Her own image, we're elegant, sophisticated, beautiful ... and mysterious.  
               The Light shines on in the darkness and darkness shall never overcome it!