Thursday, October 10, 2013

Some analogies for the Higgs field

I was just reading about the Nobel Prize in Physics on NYTimes.com, which this year was for the discovery of the Higgs boson, and came across the following analogy for how the Higgs imbues particles with mass:

"According to this model, the universe brims with energy that acts like a cosmic molasses, imbuing the particles that move through it with mass, the way a bill moving through Congress attracts riders and amendments, becoming more and more ponderous and controversial."

Umm, sure, that's a sensible analogy! :)

Anyway, that got me thinking of some more analogies with a political/ideological bent:

The Higgs field acts like a cosmic molasses, imbuing particles that move through it with mass...

...like a wolf traipsing carefree through the forest, only to get its paws progressively caught up in traps set illegally by hunters.

...like a gun that moves from dealer to dealer, impeded by endless background checks.

...like a all natural tomato growing for generations only to get progressively genetically modified by vicious genetic engineers.

...like a happy healthy child driven to autism by an extensive vaccine regimen.

...like a investment banker hampered by bureaucratic regulations.

...like a factory hit with repeated union strikes.

...like a group of workers progressively worked into the ground by management.

And some other non-political/ideological ones:

...like a PI who receives several e-mails a minute about how the latest seminar series has been canceled.

...like an unadorned Cheeto that picks up that cheesy powder on its trip through the Cheeto factory.

...like an adult working her or his way through life, only to be slowed by children, mortgage payments, and a variety of home maintenance projects.

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