Particles, Past Participles and Dark Matter

OK, first a confession.  I had to look up the definition of a ‘Past Participle’.

So, I have written (see a Past Participle) about Particles (specifically my own, fictional Deeth Particles) in my novel Dark Matter.

Deeth particles are the seat of both gravity and mass (and therefore Energy).  They are, according to my fictional friend Dr. John Deeth, the source of all Dark Matter and Dark Energy.  Those are the circa. 98% bits missing from the Universe.

Unbeknownst to me in 2011 the largest ever experiment in space was docked with the International Space Station.  It is looking for Dark Matter.  The results of an experiment eighteen years in the making is expected in two or three weeks.  http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-21495800

As part of looking into this I came across this http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oh-My-God_particle

Briefly they discovered a ‘massive’ sub-atomic particle that at 300 exa ElectronVolts has enough energy to run a 50 Watt light-bulb for one second.  That may not sound like much but here it is  described another way on Wikipedia  “in other words, a subatomic particle with kinetic energy equal to that of a 5-ounce (142 g)baseball traveling at about 100 kilometers per hour (60 mph).”

Now the article postulates that it was probably some kind of Proton and that it was travelling at fractionally less than the speed of light.  No doubt this is because;

1.  They don’t know what the hell it was.

2. They still believe that nothing can exceed the speed of light.

For me if you accept you don’t know what it was then how can you know, with certainty, that its velocity was less than something else.

I know the fiction part of my science-fiction is somewhat unorthodox as it flatly refutes speed of light being any kind of barrier.

I await the results with bated breath.

I have also decided that I will release Dark Matter as a paperback when the results are announced.

Writing on writing No.5

So I have been distracted last couple of days.  Trying to edit Dark Matter before its paperback release and my car blew up.

Hopefully I will be back in work on Friday having finally shaken this post-viral syndrome but I am not (yet) back to 100%.

Hilary Mantel has won the Costa today.  I’m afraid I haven’t read any of her work yet but I feel intensely jealous.  I feel like that is an entire world of ‘writing stuff’ that I am not apart of.  Stranded on a desert island of poor education, needing to pay the bills and having no one to talk to about something that is important to me.

That’s where you come in.  You are the ear to my thrashing self-doubt and wailing.

I’ve written before about fighting depression and cars blowing up when I do not have the money to fix or replace them really doesn’t help.  It’s hard to describe but it (at the moment) feels like fighting invisible enemies in treacle.  Everything takes more effort.  You have nothing to stand upon, so even standing still when not being attacked requires a ‘treading water’ like effort.

I have a long list of jobs to do around the house, which like my writing, I have not the energy to face.

I want to write, I need to write.

I need to write to get better.

I need to get better to write.