The Strange and the Anti-strange
Note: Written for and read at the Muslim Writers Collective event for the theme about “Strangeness” on October 10th, 2014 in Oakland
As writers we are essentially communicators of ideas, so we must be open to exploring concepts that don’t fit our life experiences or viewpoints. I wanted to know what this topic of Strangeness was about so I could write about it from an educated and informed perspective. I went to the source of Truth, the place that we all return to time and time again, to find solace in the ambiguity of our knowledge and limits of our mind. I went to Wikipedia.
According to Wikipedia, Strangeness is a concept in particle physics, for describing a type of property or flavor of particles. It describes the decay of particles in strong and electromagnetic reactions, which occur in a short period of time.
When I read this, I was very intrigued and excited that the Muslim Writers Collective choose a theme that isn’t just about our issues as third culture kids and people fighting stereotypes or global geopolitics or Bill Maher and Ben Affleck. That’s all well and good but lets talk about theoretical physics for once!
Now what types of particles can be strange? Well there’s an elementary particle called a Quark which is what makes up protons and neutrons. In fact, it may even be the most fundamental of all particles, its so fundamental that it’s probably going to be visited by CIA nano-drones very soon.
I wish all the quarks could get along but sadly some are strange and others anti-strange. An anti-strange quark is the antiparticle of a strange quark. An antiparticle basically has the same mass but opposite charge from a particle but sometimes they also might enact laws against particles, imprison them unjustly, and won’t rest till both are completely annihilated.
The Strangeness of a particle is very simply the negative of the difference between a strange quark and an anti-strange quark. I mean, obviously we all took high school advanced theoretical quantum physics 101.
The funny thing is that to create strange particles they must occur in pairs of strange and anti-strange, where the net Strangeness is conserved or 0. So as long as a community half of us are strange and the others are anti-strange, we’ll be just fine. Just that things get really awkward when you put them together. Just make sure not to invite both of them to to your next dinner party.
Researchers were able to create these strange particles through strong interactions with nuclear matter, they thought it was strange that they were able to live for a relatively long time without interacting with matter. So basically, if you get really close to nuclear matter and become a hermit, it means you’re really strange.
The first strange particle was discovered in 1947 — the same year as the Independence of Pakistan and India from British rule. Both countries are nuclear powers. Its up to you to decide if this is a coincidence or conspiracy and which country is strange and which is anti-strange.
Now here’s a really strange thing I found out about the strangeness of quarks. When quarks are close together they have a weak force between them, so they have more freedom, but when one tries to get further apart theres a strong force that acts on them from the rest of the quarks — and they can’t escape!
There’s two ways to look at this, the happy way and the sad way.
The sad way is that it seems that as long as you’re in you’re little strange bubble it feels like your free and happy but actually you’re in this dysfunctional dystopian mafia state, and you have to find this little dinghy boat and sell off your first child to escape to a better future.
The happy way to think about this is that you’re allowed to explore your boundaries but are pulled back to the community so that everyone moves forward together. And perhaps you find that one very special quark, maybe you met them online or through your parents, and you start getting really close, infinitely close to this other quark — you approach an effect known as asymptotic freedom, this state where the forces between you disappear — and you are both completely free in that moment.
