New beginnings

As ‘food’ and ‘medicine’ are mentioned in the same breath as ‘stockpiling’, I genuinely can’t remember less certainty over the future of the country in my lifetime – but has physics something to tell us about new beginnings?

Don’t stop reading – this isn’t ‘project fear’, not from me at least. This is ‘project look on in baffled amazement at the supine incompetence of the politicians who purport to have our backs’. Leave or Remain – neither camp can be impressed with how things have been handled.

And, as I consider this along with the other societal convulsions we seem to be experiencing at the moment ­– identity politics, the rise of extremists on the left and right, the apparent failure to notice we are repeating mistakes of the past – I am left wondering… have we failed. The human project that is… society, enlightenment, science… all of it – has it been a waste of time?

Oh its ever so dramatic I know. But as a species of ape which prizes, above all else, its ability to be more than its war-faring, self-interested animalistic self we do seem to have incredibly itchy trigger fingers when it comes to self-destruction. I’m not just talking about leaving the EU now of course – the tableaux of our recent history an unpleasant view from many angles.

But there is hope – and it lay in the stars. Recent research from a Japanese astrophysicist has revealed previously unknown details about our galaxy. Details which, incredibly, suggest that the Milky Way its self had failed. It looks as though it had previously died and we are now in what is considered its second life.

It is always invaluable, I think, to remember how insignificant we are

Published in Nature, Masafumi Noguchi of Tohoku University calculated the evolution of the Milky Way over a 10 billion year period by looking at the elemental composition of stars to try and explain why there are two distinct groups. One is rich in ?-elements ­– those that have been fused by stars from helium such as oxygen, magnesium and silicon ­– while the other contain a lot of iron.

Knowing that they inherit the composition of the gas from which they are formed, Noguchi suggests that the stars in the Milky Way formed in two different epochs. Initially, as cool gas flowed into the nascent galaxy, stars rich in ?-elements formed and flourished. But, around 7 billion years ago, as the galaxy heated, the gas – the very lifeblood of the stellar nursery – stopped flowing. Stars stopped forming – the Milky Way was dead. As the gas emitting radiation and cooled, it began flowing back into the galaxy 5 billion years ago and allowed the formation of the second generation of stars rich in iron, including our sun.

This does all make the ebb and flow of geopolitics seem rather petty doesn’t it? It is always invaluable, I think, to remember how insignificant we are. And the fact that we as a species are able to see this happening on a galactic scale gives one hope that with discovery and understanding and we can out live our own self-immolation.

What ever may come from societal change… we should remember that the laws of physics mean that new beginnings are possible.

Phil Prime Managing Editor Laboratory news