The Hydrogen Atom

Except, perhaps, for atheist fundies—who talks about “simple life” anymore, a phrase that, with each improvement in electron microscopy, becomes more moronically oxymoronic? Whatever “life” is (still not defined), it’s definitely not simple. Even lowlife-like bacteria have hundreds of genes, use ribosomes for protein metabolism, enzymes for metabolism, and membranes to regulate the environment—all complicated functions brewing physiological mysteries. “Simple” modifies life as accurately as “conscious” does ketchup. Only true believers such as Richard Dawkins deny the obvious design, intentionality, and teleology not only in bacterial ribosomes but in layer after layer below life itself, even down to atomic and subatomic reality.

Look, for example, at the hydrogen atom, H (as in H20), firmly and squarely tacked into the upper left-hand corner of the periodic table of elements. With the atomic number 1, which means only one proton as the nucleus and one electron cloud linked to it, the hydrogen atom is matter deemed its simplest, atomic minimalism, if you like.

Yet little is simple about the hydrogen atom. It is composed of an unforgivingly fine-tuned orchestra of particles, forces, and interactions that, besides baffling physicists, scream design, intentionality, and purpose almost as much as life itself. We’re talking about a hydrogen atom now, H, mind you.

The Nucleus

Take its nucleus, a proton composed of three quarks, two up and one down (there are six kinds), clamped in place by the strong nuclear force (How strong? Think Hiroshima), which is itself mediated by force carriers called gluons (yes, like glue). This strong nuclear force is so brutal that the farther apart the quarks are that it binds, the stronger the force gets—not generally how force works.

The complicated physics that tries to describe the strong nuclear force is called quantum chromodynamics (QCD), which is filled with mysteries that leave scientists scratching their heads. Google things such as “the QCD Lagrangian,” or “the electromagnetic field strength tensor ​” or “asymptotic freedom and running of the strong coupling constant” to get a taste of some of the complicated math behind the strong nuclear force in a hydrogen atom.

If that’s not enough, the strong nuclear force is also so finely tuned that were it a tiny percent stronger or weaker, there would be no hydrogen, and because hydrogen makes up most of the visible universe, as well as two thirds of water’s structure, our universe could not exist, nor would we be here (without water we don’t get far) to know that it couldn’t.

From the down quark in the hydrogen nucleus and on up, creation reveals the Creator, and it takes reckless leaps of faith to believe otherwise.

The Electron Cloud

More fun comes from the electron cloud, tied to the hydrogen nucleus by electromagnetism, a form of what electricity, light, and magnetism are, themselves foundational realities that in some cases defy minds—at least ours. Why, for instance, does light act like a wave—that is, until someone looks at it, when it then becomes a particle? (Explain that, and you will get a Nobel Prize.) The electromagnetism that holds the electron cloud in place has a very precise value, the “fine-structure constant (≈ 1/137),” which, according to classical physics, follows Coulomb’s law, even though this law itself doesn’t quite work.

In fact, following this law alone, the electron should crash into the nucleus, not just in the hydrogen atom but in all atoms, which means atoms should not exist, a slight problem for us. However, by setting the foundations of quantum theory, two Germans, Max Planck and Albert Einstein, at the turn of the twentieth century, came to the rescue, even if at the cost of common sense. (“Common sense,” Einstein said, “is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen.”) Using their work, Danish physicist Niels Bohr came to explain why the electron did not crash into the nucleus, thus saving the atom.

Meanwhile, according to the wave-mechanical formulation of quantum theory, formulated by Erwin Schrödinger, the electron itself doesn’t even really exist as a single point, but as a “wave function.” This is a cloud-like thingamajig (people argue over what this wave function is, or if it even “is”), and it tells us that the electron is likely to be somewhere, but only after you look at it. In fact, the Copenhagen interpretation, built up from the ideas of Bohr and his disciples, claims that the electron doesn’t even exist until observed. Until then, all that we have is this wave function. Once observed or measured, the wave function—according to the Schrödinger wave equation—collapses into a single point, the electron particle as commonly understood. Though, according to the Heisenberg uncertainty principle, we can know precisely only its momentum or its position, but not both, because, in principle, it really doesn’t have both.

Or, if you don’t like this idea, that our looking at something changes it, there is always the many-worlds interpretation of reality, which teaches that with each quantum event with different potential outcomes, instead of the wave function collapsing, the entire universe splits into multiple universes, each universe representing a different outcome. (Years ago I read a book that made this theory, however bizarre, sound quite logical, actually.)

 A Few Formulas

Here, FYI, are a few of the equations involved in helping us understand the structure of a single hydrogen atom, the simplest atom that we know of.

If you don’t understand these formulas, don’t worry: neither do I. But they help illustrate my point about just how obviously designed a single hydrogen atom is.

Big Bang Cosmology

For decades now we have been assured that about 14 billion years ago something called a “singularity” exploded, creating space, time, matter, and energy. Most of that matter became our beloved hydrogen, which, over time, and under the force of gravity (another Big Bang byproduct), condensed into stars, and, well, the rest is history. Everything—from the strong nuclear force binding the quarks in the hydrogen nucleus to human consciousness—all came into existence, we are told, without intention, purpose, or design.

Now, maybe I’m naïve, but when I read about the hydrogen atom, so precise, so purposeful, so balanced, or look at the those formulas, so complicated, so refined, so tuned, the idea of the hydrogen atom having just formed of itself, without having been purposely designed with an end point in mind, is almost as bizarre as believing that life itself—insanely more complicated than a hydrogen atom—arose without design, purpose, and intentionality either.

From the down quark in the hydrogen nucleus and on up, creation reveals the Creator, and it takes reckless leaps of faith to believe otherwise.