Physics is good for your health

Book sandwich
[Img src: strangehistory.net]

Yes, physics is good for your health. And that’s not only because it’s good to know that peeing on high power lines is a bad idea. It’s also because, if they wheel you to the hospital, physics is your best friend. Without physics, there’d be no X-rays and no magnetic resonance imaging. There’d be no ultrasound and no spectroscopy, no optical fiber imaging and no laser surgery. There wouldn’t even be centrifuges.

But physics is good for your health in another way – as the resort of sanity.

Human society may have entered a post-factual era, but the laws of nature don’t give a shit. Planet Earth is a crazy place, full with crazy people, getting crazier by the minute. But the universe still expands, atoms still decay, electric currents still take the path of least resistance. Electrons don’t care if you believe in them and supernovae don’t want your money. And that’s the beauty of knowledge discovery: It’s always waiting for you. Stupid policy decisions can limit our collective benefit from science, but the individual benefit is up to each of us.

In recent years I’ve found it impossible to escape the “mindfulness” movement. Its followers preach that focusing on the present moment will ease your mental tension. I don’t know about you, but most days focusing on the present moment is the last thing I want. I’ve done a lot of breaths and most of them were pretty unremarkable – I’d much rather think about something more interesting.

And physics is there for you: Find peace of mind in Hubble images of young nebulae or galaxy clusters billions of light years away. Gauge the importance of human affairs by contemplating the enormous energies released in black hole mergers. Remember how lucky we are that our planet is warmed but not roasted by the Sun, then watch some videos of recent solar eruptions. Reflect on the long history of our own galaxy, seeded by tiny density fluctuations whose imprint still see today in the cosmic microwave background.

Or stretch your imagination and try to figure out what happens when you fall into a black hole, catch light like Einstein, or meditate over the big questions: Does time exist? Is the future determined? What, if anything, happened before the big bang? And if there are infinitely many copies of you in the multiverse, does that mean you are immortal?

This isn’t to say the here and now doesn’t matter. But if you need to recharge, physics can be a welcome break from human insanity.

And if everything else fails, there’s always the 2nd law of thermodynamics to remind us: All this will pass.