THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, March 26, 1995 TAG: 9503230184
SECTION: CAROLINA COAST PAGE: 06 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
SOURCE: Ron Speer
LENGTH: Medium: 72 lines
Over the years, as man developed, certain eras were marked with names.
There's an Ice Age. An Iron Age. The Middle Ages and the Dark Age.
I think our time will be known as the Black Hole Age - because most of us are scared to death of things we've never seen and may not even be there.
The Black Hole, according to Webster's, is a ``hypothetical celestial object with a gravitational field so strong that light cannot escape.''
That sounds like a mouth a billion miles wide about a zillion miles out in space that sucks up everything and turns it into nothing.
If there is such a thing as a Black Hole.
It wasn't discovered until 1968 and there still are lots of people who have doubts about the whole thing.
The other night, staring into the star-studded skies over Roanoke Island, I couldn't find anything that looked like a black hole.
But there are a lot of things I've never seen that keep us tight and tense most of the time.
For instance, calories get blamed for all sorts of problems but I wouldn't have the foggiest idea what one looks like.
I've never seen a caffeine, either, but experts tell me that most of the things I like are filled with those little devils. And in all my years I've never seen a cholesterol - or met anybody else who has, either.
How many legs, I ask you, does a carbohydrate have? I wouldn't even guess, since a carbohydrate has never come around my neighborhood.
It's really hard to go charging into battle against something that you can't draw a picture of.
It was easier, I think, in those glorious days in England known as the Age of Chivalry.
The fears may have been just as unwarranted, but when Sir Galahad went out to slay dragons he at least knew what to look for - nasty, fire-belching critters who like to steal away with fair damsels clasped in their razor-sharp claws.
Now, that was a worthy opponent. And just because nobody actually ever brought one back didn't keep poets and painters from coming up with a pretty clear idea of how a dragon should look.
When old Galahad galloped through a village promising to keep dragons from the gates, people cheered as he charged out of sight seeking a fight.
Gallop through a suburb today shouting, ``Lock up the women and children, the calories are coming!'' and they'd probably lock YOU up.
This may all seem like much ado about nothing, and I might agree if we were getting closer to recognizing our enemies.
But we're not. In fact, scientists keep coming up with new little fellows that no human can ever see.
The latest critter to capture the fancy of people who know the Black Hole exists is called the top quark.
The white-coats who found it just this winter say it is the smallest but heaviest of all the things that make up matter.
It's mighty tough for even eagle-eyed folks to spot a top quark, since it is maybe a trillionith of the thickness of a hair and lives but a trillionith of a trillionith of a second.
I suppose in some ways the people who say they've found the Black Hole or the top quark are bigger heroes than any knight who kept dragons at bay.
But it doesn't seem ridiculous to worry about big, ornery old dragons. I feel pretty stupid being scared by critters I've never ever seen.
Maybe, somehow, calories and carbohydrates and caffeine and all other nasty unseen foes will be sucked up by that mean old Black Hole or pulverized by a tiny but powerful top quark.
And with our fears of the unknown gone, we might live in what would be known as the second Age of Reason. by CNB