by R K vanderHoek

Created on: February 18, 2009   Last Updated: October 04, 2009

The answer to this question depends on what is meant by the "Standard Model".

Preface:

As defined by present day physics, there is actually more than one Standard Model. There is a Standard Model of particle and nuclear physics, which incorporates quantum mechanics and quark theory which, in a recent non-scientific survey, 10 out of 11 authors chose to address. Then there is a Standard Model of cosmology and astrophysics, which incorporates the "Big Bang" theory of universal creation and inflated expansion, which would be better published under an astronomy or astrophysics heading. In a brief effort to illuminate both Standard Models for the casual non-scientific reader and any confused or mistaken authors I offer the following:

Yes! As of early fall 2009, a preponderance of scientific data has shown the astrophysical, "Inflationary Big Bang", standard model to be correct after replacing the "Steady State", eternal universe hypothesis, championed by astronomer Fred Hoyle (1915-2001). Hoyle swore by this theory, despite the mounting evidence against it 'til his dying day. Hoyle actually coined the term, "Big Bang", when speaking in a derogatory way about the hypothesis, which eventually proved to be supported by a majority of the scientific evidence, and the name stuck. Though wrong about universal structure in a cosmological sense, Hoyle made great contributions about the knowledge of stellar nucleosynthesis. That is how the atoms of all the various chemical elements that compose everything tangible were created, from primordial hydrogen and helium in extreme heat and tremendous pressures, by various stellar processes. These processes range from fusion and fission to supernovas, to create all the chemical elements in existence.

If, by referring to the Standard Model one means Quantum Mechanics or the basic concept that it is based on, the answer is Yes!

Energy-mass, at the infinitesimally tiny level of the electron and photon (light) appears to be portioned into packets or specific amounts termed "quanta". Energy is fractionated, unitized and exists in the form of these individual miniscule quanta, rather than an uninterrupted energy continuum, as it seems to be at our level of perception. There's something very unusual about these tiny entities. They are wave-particles. That is, in some experiments they act like particles and in others they appear to be waves. Quantum mechanics can make no statement as to why this is so, only that, that's how nature is

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