The Next Big Bang
by Alasdair McPherson
Genre: Fantasy/Sci-Fi
Swearwords: None.
Description: A Skianan goes beyond Einstein.
_____________________________________________________________________
Headline in The Skianan, the Journal for Skye:
SKYE MAN WINS NOBEL PHYSICS PRIZE
William Munro McPherson (67) who spent much of his childhood in Lower Breakish where he was brought up by his maternal Grandmother Elspeth (Effie) Munro has been awarded the prestigious Nobel Prize for Physics. The Swedish Academy announced the award yesterday saying ‘Dr. McPherson has radically reformed the way we understand the Universe’.
Dr McPherson heard the news at his holiday home in Heaste where he is spending a few days with his daughter Abigail Sally (Abi).
“I was out in the boat fishing for whiting when Abi shouted the news. I was so excited I dropped an oar and had to paddle in!”
Abi (39), who is professor of Psychology at an English university said; ‘It has been a long time coming. He’s been mocked and derided by the scientific establishment. This prize is no more than his due.’
Exclusive interview with our science reporter, Shauna McGregor on page 4.
Shauna McGregor: Congratulations! I’m sure your theory is way over my head but can you explain it in simple terms?
William Munro McPherson: Scientists test theories and when they find that a theory no longer works they invent a new one. That’s what I did.
SM: Your daughter says you were mocked for years – you were never a professor, were you?
WMM: I was just a wee bit premature. When I first proposed my theory other scientists did not see a need for it, arguing that Einstein‘s ideas still worked fine. Scientists are as reluctant to change as anybody else.
It is true that I was never a professor but for the past few years that is only because I’m a thrawn old devil! I have had offers.
SM: You mentioned Einstein. Is it true that you have rubbished his Theory of Relativity?
WMM: I have no more rubbished Einstein than Einstein rubbished Newton. For almost all problems Newton’s Laws of Motion are as valid today as they were when he sat under the apple tree. In the late nineteenth century it was found that Newton could not explain what was being observed. In simple terms, if you get up to ninety per cent of the speed of light you need to use Einstein’s theory. What I realised was that when you got even closer to light speed Einstein would not work.
SM: You said that scientists look for new theories only after the old ones are proved wrong. What experiment did you do to convince yourself that a new theory was needed?
WMM: Oh dear! It all gets a bit technical. We are talking about extremes – conditions that we will never encounter. The best I can do is to describe why I started looking at the evidence. Before Einstein came along scientists explained what they observed by inventing a substance – the aether – that only existed to keep the sums right. You could only detect it because it caused observable phenomena. Recently a new substance has been invented – dark matter – that has been proposed for the same reasons. It has to be there to make the observations fit.
My starting point was a theory called Modified Newtonian Dynamics that removed the need for dark matter. All I did was to describe the mathematics that was required.
Einstein’s Theory of Relativity removed the need for the aether and my theory means you no longer have to have dark matter. You need Einstein when you are within ten per cent of the speed of light, and you need my theory when you get within one per cent.
SM: Phew! I think I understand. Turning to something else, do you think your upbringing on Skye influenced you when you were developing your theory?
WMM: Certainly! Scientists are human beings first just as influenced by our upbringing and environment as everybody else. As a Skianan I have inherited perhaps more imagination than scientists from other backgrounds. I am pretty sure, for instance, that I would have spotted black holes if I had lived in the nineteenth century.
SM: Black holes are sort of cosmic dustbins, aren’t they?
WMM: Very good! They provide the impetus for galaxies to form. After the Big Bang the universe would have expanded uniformly into the void if black holes had not been present to attract clumps of matter that eventually formed galaxies and stars. Even using Newtonian ideas you can see that something had to be at the centre of the activity.
SM: But we will all eventually be drawn into a black hole, won’t we?
WMM: If we are you can blame me! Using Einstein’s theory nothing can actually enter a black hole – it just gets stretched. My theory allows for matter being absorbed.
SM: Where would all the stuff go that is drawn into this black pit?
WMM: As a scientist I have no idea but as an imaginative Highlander I can offer a notion.
SM: Go on!
WMM: The black hole acts like your Hoover: matter goes in and is collected in a kind of bag, only it will be an impossibly tiny bag about the size of an atom, in fact. Eventually the bag will become so full that it will burst. That will be the Big Bang that starts a totally new universe.
SM: Thank you and may I add that you are not nearly so scary as your reputation!
WMM (laughing): That’s because you are not a fellow scientist trying to give me grief!
Swearwords: None.
Description: A Skianan goes beyond Einstein.
_____________________________________________________________________
Headline in The Skianan, the Journal for Skye:
SKYE MAN WINS NOBEL PHYSICS PRIZE
William Munro McPherson (67) who spent much of his childhood in Lower Breakish where he was brought up by his maternal Grandmother Elspeth (Effie) Munro has been awarded the prestigious Nobel Prize for Physics. The Swedish Academy announced the award yesterday saying ‘Dr. McPherson has radically reformed the way we understand the Universe’.
Dr McPherson heard the news at his holiday home in Heaste where he is spending a few days with his daughter Abigail Sally (Abi).
“I was out in the boat fishing for whiting when Abi shouted the news. I was so excited I dropped an oar and had to paddle in!”
Abi (39), who is professor of Psychology at an English university said; ‘It has been a long time coming. He’s been mocked and derided by the scientific establishment. This prize is no more than his due.’
Exclusive interview with our science reporter, Shauna McGregor on page 4.
Shauna McGregor: Congratulations! I’m sure your theory is way over my head but can you explain it in simple terms?
William Munro McPherson: Scientists test theories and when they find that a theory no longer works they invent a new one. That’s what I did.
SM: Your daughter says you were mocked for years – you were never a professor, were you?
WMM: I was just a wee bit premature. When I first proposed my theory other scientists did not see a need for it, arguing that Einstein‘s ideas still worked fine. Scientists are as reluctant to change as anybody else.
It is true that I was never a professor but for the past few years that is only because I’m a thrawn old devil! I have had offers.
SM: You mentioned Einstein. Is it true that you have rubbished his Theory of Relativity?
WMM: I have no more rubbished Einstein than Einstein rubbished Newton. For almost all problems Newton’s Laws of Motion are as valid today as they were when he sat under the apple tree. In the late nineteenth century it was found that Newton could not explain what was being observed. In simple terms, if you get up to ninety per cent of the speed of light you need to use Einstein’s theory. What I realised was that when you got even closer to light speed Einstein would not work.
SM: You said that scientists look for new theories only after the old ones are proved wrong. What experiment did you do to convince yourself that a new theory was needed?
WMM: Oh dear! It all gets a bit technical. We are talking about extremes – conditions that we will never encounter. The best I can do is to describe why I started looking at the evidence. Before Einstein came along scientists explained what they observed by inventing a substance – the aether – that only existed to keep the sums right. You could only detect it because it caused observable phenomena. Recently a new substance has been invented – dark matter – that has been proposed for the same reasons. It has to be there to make the observations fit.
My starting point was a theory called Modified Newtonian Dynamics that removed the need for dark matter. All I did was to describe the mathematics that was required.
Einstein’s Theory of Relativity removed the need for the aether and my theory means you no longer have to have dark matter. You need Einstein when you are within ten per cent of the speed of light, and you need my theory when you get within one per cent.
SM: Phew! I think I understand. Turning to something else, do you think your upbringing on Skye influenced you when you were developing your theory?
WMM: Certainly! Scientists are human beings first just as influenced by our upbringing and environment as everybody else. As a Skianan I have inherited perhaps more imagination than scientists from other backgrounds. I am pretty sure, for instance, that I would have spotted black holes if I had lived in the nineteenth century.
SM: Black holes are sort of cosmic dustbins, aren’t they?
WMM: Very good! They provide the impetus for galaxies to form. After the Big Bang the universe would have expanded uniformly into the void if black holes had not been present to attract clumps of matter that eventually formed galaxies and stars. Even using Newtonian ideas you can see that something had to be at the centre of the activity.
SM: But we will all eventually be drawn into a black hole, won’t we?
WMM: If we are you can blame me! Using Einstein’s theory nothing can actually enter a black hole – it just gets stretched. My theory allows for matter being absorbed.
SM: Where would all the stuff go that is drawn into this black pit?
WMM: As a scientist I have no idea but as an imaginative Highlander I can offer a notion.
SM: Go on!
WMM: The black hole acts like your Hoover: matter goes in and is collected in a kind of bag, only it will be an impossibly tiny bag about the size of an atom, in fact. Eventually the bag will become so full that it will burst. That will be the Big Bang that starts a totally new universe.
SM: Thank you and may I add that you are not nearly so scary as your reputation!
WMM (laughing): That’s because you are not a fellow scientist trying to give me grief!
About the Author
Originally from Dalmuir, Alasdair McPherson is now retired and living in exile in Lincolnshire.
He says he has always wanted to write, but life got in the way until recently. He has already penned five novels and many short stories. His two latest novels, The Island and Pilgrimage of Grace, are McStorytellers publications.
You can read Alasdair's full profile on McVoices.
He says he has always wanted to write, but life got in the way until recently. He has already penned five novels and many short stories. His two latest novels, The Island and Pilgrimage of Grace, are McStorytellers publications.
You can read Alasdair's full profile on McVoices.