340 The Bible According to Einstein The ninth book of Creation, called
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The Old Testament 341
Episode II: Protons Come to Outnumber Neutrons Now time advanced and temperature decreased. Soon the protons numbered more than neutrons, for the thermal cosmic sea had less energy to give and gave it to the lighter particles: So protons, being a little lighter than the neutrons, were produced more easily. So neutrons, being heavier than protons, were destroyed more easily. The neutrons disappeared through sacrifice by giving up their mass in making lighter particles and energy. And thus it came to pass that, when the Universe was one second old and the temperature was ten-billion, there were six times as many proton particles as neutrons. Episode III: Nucleons Cease Their Subatomic Transformations Since Episode I, the width of the Universe had grown tenfold. The volume of the Universe had increased a thousandfold. The temperature had dropped tenfold. And the density of particles had declined a thousandfold. Episode IV: Neutrinos Decouple and Escape Now the neutrinos, which only interact through the weak interactions, no longer interacted, for the weak force was too weak. Henceforth and forever, these neutrinos would move freely through the Universe. The story of these particles would be incredible. They would become a cosmic non-interacting relic, a ghost in space and of the past. For eternity would they fill three-space. Though omnipresent, they would be for the rest of time invisible. Episode V: Positron Annihilations The age of the Universe increased tenfold. The time was ten seconds. The temperature of the Universe dropped threefold. |
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242 The Bible According to Einstein
Episode VI: The First Deuterons and First Nuclei Now from time to time, a proton and a neutron merged and formed a deuteron. So in the cosmic sea were traces of deuterium. Episode VII: The Light Nuclei Are Made Three minutes slipped away. During this long interval, in which thy Universe aged a dozen-fold, a fraction of the neutrons did decay when such a neutron disappeared, an antineutrino, an electron and a proton in its place appeared. And so it came to pass that there were seven protons for each neutron. And with a few embellishments, |
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The Old Testament 243
Chapter II: Taking Count And what was the nuclear score? For weight, one can ignore the leptons and the photons, for they are relatively light. By weight, seventy-six percent of matter was in protons and twenty-four percent was in the form of helium-four. All neutrons were in helium cores. And as for the other elements, by number, deuterium was one part in ten-thousand, helium-three was ten parts per million, and lithium-seven was one in ten-billion. Humpty Dumpty had a great fall. |
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