Today we learn about a super heavy element
co-created by Australian researchers at a German laboratory. Temporarily known
as element 117 after the number of protons in its nucleus. Only four atoms
of the super heavy element were observed and given its rapid radioactive decay it
disappeared within one tenth of a second. This was, however, enough to
independently corroborate the element's first observation in 2010 (Physical
Review Letters on 5 April 2010, "Synthesis of a new chemical element with
atomic number Z=117”).
The minuscule size of the element created
makes practical use unfeasible, focus will be placed on how the science behind
the element's creation can lead to even heavier substances. The team, rightly suggest
that the trick is to understand the quantum physics at play.
Learning of this news reminded
me of Empedocles and Jung’s work. According to Empedocles, the Greek
philosopher, scientist and healer who lived in Sicily in the fifth century
B.C., all matter is comprised of four "roots" or elements of
earth, air, fire and water. The interaction of the four elements is
influenced by the relationship between the two great life energies of Love and
Strife. How’s that for an eternal insight in the human psyche.
Empedocles' philosophy was
influenced not only by Pythagoras, but also by the ancient Greek mystery
traditions, which included the Orphic mysteries and the underworld cults of
Hades, Hecate, Demeter, Persephone and Dionysos. In his own thinking and
writing, and in works and practices of the alchemists, Neoplatonists and Gnostics
that further developed his theories, the four elements are not only material
and spiritual forces, but also facets of a human being. Their varying
combinations result in different personality types.
Now Jung, you might recall,
contributed greatly to the theory of type. Jung
found that different people think, feel, and experience the world in
fundamentally different ways. His type theory has helped us understand how
people function. He identified four fundamental psychological functions:
thinking, feeling, sensation, and intuition. Each function may be experienced
in an introverted or an extraverted fashion. Generally, one of the functions is
more conscious, developed, and dominant. Jung called this the superior function.
Jung
focused initially on the polarities of introversion (directing one's attention
inward toward thoughts, feelings and awareness) and extroversion (directing
one's energy outward toward people, actions and external objects), combining
each polarity with predominances in thinking, feeling, sensing and intuiting,
to develop eight basic personality types. The four personality variables
of the Meyers-Briggs test (and its offshoots, the Keirsey test and the DDLI) also appear to be a further development of
this psychological philosophy.
