Science cannot solve the ultimate mystery of nature. And that is because, in the last analysis, we ourselves are a part of that mystery that we are trying to solve.
Max Planck
For some reason, I woke up thinking about Max Planck...a founder of modern physics. .
I just finished reading Ervin Laszlo's Science and the Akashic Field and I was so surprised that he did not mention Max Planck once throughout the book. I checked the references and the "must reads", and I could not find anything written by Max Planck. He mentions "modern physics", "quanta", "Quantum theory", and very briefly "Plank-Volume" throughout his book, but surprisingly he doesn't attribute it to Max Planck. (You think he would mention that name often amongst the many other names mentioned, seeing himself as kindred spirit to Max Planck being that they were both not only reknown theorists but also musical prodigy's ). Is there a reason for that, and more importantly why the heck do I care? lol
I guess I care because there was the name "Max Planck" stuck in my head this morning. I couldn't shake it. I knew I had to write about him.
Who the heck is Max Planck?
Max Plank was a german born phsyicist who made a name for himself in the scientific world when he won the nobel prize in 1918 for his discovery of energy quanta.
Huh? What is energy quanta and why would I care to know about that?
Energy quanta is a concept derived by Planck to explain the discrete pockets or packets by which energy is stored and absorbed. Energy, he believed, was not continous and smooth as previously proposed. If it was it would be infinite. Planck set out to solve the problem of the"ultraviolet catastrophe" by proving that energy was chunky rather than smooth and that it had specific frequencies. This set the framework for a new field of thought called "Quantum mechanics". The formula he prosposed when dealing with black-bodies ( the spectrum of electromagnetic radiation emitted by a heated object) and won the nobel prize for was: E= hf. E is the energy of the quanta, f is the frequency and h is the constant he derived (this would later be called the "Planck constant"). With this theory, he turned classical "Newtonian" physics upside down.
Prior to his discoveries, physics was said to be a completed study. Scientific mentors told him that there was nothing left to study and know in the area of theoretical physics. Planck, however, showed that what scientists thought they knew about the universe was not the be all or the end all. Much more "knowing" had to be discovered about what was happening at the atomic and subatomic level.
His theory set the groundwork for the "Matrix" theory developed by Heisenberg in 1925 (the movies "The Matrix" were based on this theory), as well as eleven "string" theories which later developed into one "Super string" theory. Science still has lots to study and learn about the nature of the universe..
Science did not and will not solve the basic mystery of nature, life, and the universe. Why? We are a part of that which we are trying to solve.
This man basically changed the way we perceived, thought and made sense of our world! That is why it is important to remember the contributions of great thinkers like Max Planck.
All is well.
Ervin Laszlo ( 2007) Science and the Akashic Field. Inner Traditions: Rochester
Internet Archive/Max Planck, (1932) Where is Science Going? https://archive.org/details/whereissciencego00plan_0/page/40/mode/2up
