Don't blow your mind, yet

A recent article suggests that – alpha – a "fundamental constant" of the universe that pins down the strength of the electromagnetic field in contemporary theory – is not a constant.  Measurements in different directions appear to result in different values for alpha.This opens up a philosophical avenue of thought. If the findings are proven to be correct, it means that the laws of physics can only be known if the space-time coordinate of measurement is known. In other words – every constellation, every star system, every planet and every biological system has a different set of laws of Physics. On Earth you can take it one step further – every human, every brain and every brain cell – has its own set of laws of Physics.

For me, this is immensely satisfying. As the machine operators of particle accelerators fine tune their experiments to find members of the concocted particle zoo, as the theoreticians fine tune their equations by adding dark factors that escape physical explanations and as famous scientists declare everything that is worth knowing has been found, it appears that the rug has been pulled right out of their feet. We have an infinite number of "laws of Physics," – not one. It appears that the sheer human arrogance of theorizing based on local observations has taken yet another blow. More importantly, rigid scientific thinking and elitism that reject anything that does not fit into the current framework may need to be reevaluated. Ignorance is fundamentally superior to assumed knowledge and imagination is more valuable than prescriptive rules.

Don't blow your mind, yet even if you internalize that every cell in your brain has a different set of laws of Physics. I suspect, there is more to come – especially if the scientific aristocracy shun the well trodden path.