A paradigm is a system of assumptions, concepts, values, and practices that constitutes a way of viewing reality. A paradigm tends to only see a subset of reality without consideration of the external factors that may impact the factors seen within the paradigm. For instance, ancient scientists thought the world was flat, the center of the universe, and the sun revolved around the earth. The stars were observed to move across the sky in a zigzag pattern. All was well.
Nicolaus Copernicus (19 February 1473 – 24 May 1543) was the first astronomer to formulate a comprehensive heliocentric cosmology, which displaced the Earth from the center of the universe. With improved technology such as the telescope, our view (or paradigm) has been greatly expanded. The microscope did for biology what the telescope did for astronomy. We once thought the atom was the smallest particle because technology was limited in its ability to see anything smaller. Our comprehension expands as our ability to measure improves.
Below is a list of sub-atomic particles:
- 1895 – X-rays produced by Wilhelm Röntgen (later identified as photons)
- 1897 – Electron discovered by J. J. Thomson
- 1899 – Alpha particle discovered by Ernest Rutherford in uranium radiation
- 1900 – Gamma ray (high-energy photon) discovered by Paul Villard in uranium decay.
- 1911 – Atomic nucleus identified by Ernest Rutherford, based on scattering observed by Hans Geiger and Ernest Marsden.
- 1919 – Proton discovered by Ernest Rutherford
- 1932 – Neutron discovered by James Chadwick (predicted by Rutherford in 1920)
- 1932 – Positron, the first antiparticle, discovered by Carl D. Anderson (proposed by Paul Dirac in 1927)
- 1937 – Muon discovered by Seth Neddermeyer, Carl Anderson, J.C. Street, and E.C. Stevenson, using cloud chamber measurements of cosmic rays. (It was mistaken for the pion until 1947.)
- 1947 – Pion discovered by Cecil Powell (predicted by Hideki Yukawa in 1935])
- 1947 – Kaon, the first strange particle, discovered by G.D. Rochester and C.C. Butler
- 1955 – Antiproton discovered by Owen Chamberlain, Emilio Segrè, Clyde Wiegand, and Thomas Ypsilantis
- 1956 – Neutrino detected by Frederick Reines and Clyde Cowan (proposed by Wolfgang Pauli in 1931 to explain the apparent violation of energy conservation in beta decay)
- 1962 – Muon neutrino shown to be distinct from electron neutrino by group headed by Leon Lederman
- 1969 – Partons (internal constituents of hadrons) observed in deep inelastic scattering experiments between protons and electrons at SLAC; this was eventually associated with the quark model (predicted by Murray Gell-Mann and George Zweig in 1963) and thus constitutes the discovery of the up quark, down quark, and strange quark.
- 1974 – J/ψ particle discovered by groups headed by Burton Richter and Samuel Ting, demonstrating the existence of the charm quark (proposed by Bjorken and Glashow in 1964)
- 1975 – Tau lepton discovered by group headed by Martin Perl
- 1977 – Upsilon particle discovered at Fermilab, demonstrating the existence of the bottom quark (proposed by Kobayashi and Maskawa in 1973)
- 1979 – Gluon observed indirectly in three jet events at DESY
- 1983 – W and Z bosons discovered by Carlo Rubbia, Simon van der Meer, and the CERN UA-1 collaboration (predicted in detail by Sheldon Glashow, Abdus Salam, and Steven Weinberg)
- 1995 – Top quark discovered at Fermilab
- 2000 – Tau neutrino first observed directly at Fermilab
Aren’t we glad that x-rays were discovered 114 years ago! Millions of people have been helped by the fact that a physician could look inside the body without cutting it open. Notice that some particles were theorized before their actual discovery. As our technology improves and our paradigms expand to encompass the full reality, I believe we will be given the revelation of the “GOD” particle where a particle can turn into a wave form and a wave form can become a particle. We have empirical evidence that the body responds to the wave form similar to the way it responds to the actual chemical but without the side effects.
Just as the paradigm has shifted and expanded in physics, it will happen in healthcare. The challenge will be to keep the moneychangers out of the equation since they would figure out how to package the revelation for profit and at the expense of the rest of us.