Scientific Narrative

March 23, 2025

by Michelle Choo

Article Referenced: https://www.popsci.com/science/why-dont-molecules-ever-stop-moving/

This article expands on what I learned during the first and second trimesters of my Accelerated Chemistry class this year. Above are some notes I took in class. It’s still hard to imagine that every single matter is constantly in motion, at a molecular level.

The article mentions the theoretical idea of lowering the temperature of an object to 0 Kelvin and thus, eliminating all heat. However, it points out it’s impossible in practice to isolate an object from its environment completely, in order for it’s kinetic energy to be none, Justin Caram says.

The article reminded me of what I learned in my first trimester, of the fundamentals of quantum mechanics. Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle can be overly simplified in saying that the position and speed of atoms cannot be measured at the same time, which ultimately entails viewing atoms as particles as well as waves, simultaneously.

What struck me was two things: 1) Articifical settings created by humans were able to achieve a colder, more static environment than the deepest parts of space (deep space is constantly affected by microwave background radiation), and 2) Ever since the Big Bang, the expansion of the universe is slowly, very slowly, making objects move less over time.

Bringing the somewhat abstract idea of quantum mechanics that I learned in class into perspective, I found it ironic that theory itself cannot explain the reality of matter, and everything around us. We need to go beyond, and investigate deeper than what textbooks lay out, and assess the limitations of theoretical talks to truly realize how the world operates.