Friday, December 21, 2007

A Theory of the Existence of Biological Black Holes

Last night, I watched back-to back programs on PBS on the subject of black holes. One program was on supermassive black holes and the other was on the history of the "information paradox" posited by, and later superceded (some say repudiated) by, Stephen Hawking.

Once black holes were "discovered" (i.e., recognized), scientists originally thought they were a rare phenomenon. Now scientists know that, even in our own galaxy, there are hundreds of millions of black holes. Moreover, they have concluded that at the heart of every (or most every) large galaxy, there is a supermassive black hole.

Here's how I heard the information presented.

Initially, the consensus seemed to be that these supermassive black holes were coincidental with a galaxy, but not integral to it. IOW, that the supermassive black hole was some sort of "leftover" from the process of galaxy formation; a remnant of a largely destructive force that no longer exerted influence on the coherent relationships of the stars (and whatever else that presently is unrecognized) in the galaxy.

Scientists were wrong. Now they believe that not only are supermassive black holes integral to the structure of a galaxy, but that supermassive black holes are an important, if not the, mechanism for galaxy formation.

The following explanation is for a general overview, but it probably is not completely accurate, or completely technically correct, but here's the gist as IRI:

The process of galaxy formation, restating what I learned from this program, involved the formation of the supermassive black hole, which then began to feed violently on the gasses of its quasar.

This process of energy consumption led to the condensation of matter---the creation of stars.

As the black hole continued to consume energy, the force of this process pushed the stars outward. The black hole continued this process of energy consumption until its quasar was completely consumed.

At this point, the black hole had exhausted its energy source and, therefore, it went "quiet" (terms such as "quiet" are always relevant, in my view; yes, the black hole is no longer in a feeding frenzy viz-a-vis its quasar, yet that by no means demonstrates that it is devoid of activity or influence).

When the black hole went quiet, the stars were "set" (again, relatively speaking) in their galaxy.

I wondered: did a black hole enter a "quiet" state simply because it consumed all the energy available for its so-called "active" state?

IOW, would a black hole continue to consume quasar-like energy infinitely if it had an infinite source of such energy?

Further, would a "quiet" black hole re-enter an active state if it were resupplied with quasar-like energy? IOW, could and would the black hole begin feeding again if it had a new source of energy?

As I contemplated this explanation of the formation of galaxies, and my questions set out above, I began to relate this to other ideas discussed in these programs.

First, that black holes traditionally have been viewed as destructive, not creative.

That the destructive power of a black hole has only been theorized, never imaged.

So here's what I'm asking:

It seems to me that the process of formation---here, of galaxies---is fundamental. That is, that it has patterns or mechanisms that, at some level, are repeated in every process that results in formation of something. One of these patterns seems to be release of energy (e.g., the force pushing the stars away from the active / "feeding" black hole) through the consumption of energy (e.g., the black hole consuming its quasar).

So this might mean that our understanding of the formative process for galaxies could help explain other formative processes.

Based on that, I set out an hypothesis of the existence of biological black holes that are analogous to astrophysical black holes, as follows.

Take the example of the formation of a human body.

Put in terms of galaxy formation, here's the hypothesis:

Sperm cells and ova contain (not yet recognized) vast (relative to their size) stores of energy that act like fuels that are combustible only in combination.

When a sperm cell penetrates an ovum, either a violent collision of energy (cellular energy that is not yet recognized) or combustibility caused by combining two cellular fuel stores results in an explosion that leads to formation of a biological black hole.

This explosion of (what we will presently call) the cellular fuel stores of the sperm and the egg results in a "quasar" that feeds the biological black hole.

As the biological black hole feeds vigorously on its quasar, it causes the condensation of matter---the creation of cells.

As the biological black hole continues to consume energy, the force of this process pushes the cells outward. The biological black hole continues this process of energy consumption until its quasar is completely consumed and the cells have formed a human body, like the stars form a galaxy.

Of course, this hypothesis does not address how the cells differentiate and organize. (Then again, the theory of galaxy formation does not address how the stars, at some level, differentiate and organize into a coherent structure, a galaxy.) But it does go to how the initial spark for the formation of a new structure (here, a human body) might occur.

What do you think?

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