What is the universe made of?

[eschereal]

@Martian Bigfoot

… Every type of particle has an associated field, which extend through space. (Sometimes infinitely, and sometimes, I think, not. I’m not sure, I got distracted by my date’s cleavage when she got to that part.) …

Décolletage? Space is made of décolletage? Awesome.

[Cabin_Fever_1]

@eschereal

Décolletage? Space is made of décolletage? Awesome.

Oh my, just as I suspected. Space is made up of giant breasts, with Venezuelan Beaver Cheese as an added bonus.
Poor Velomont. A simple question (hopefully answered) and he/she gets a physics lesson from aliens.

[Czarcasm]

The universe is made of everything, some parts more than others.

[Don_t_Panic]

@Cabin_Fever

Oh my, just as I suspected. Space is made up of giant breasts, with Venezuelan Beaver Cheese as an added bonus.

I do love me a pair of breasts and some Venezuelan beaver…

…cheese.

[eschereal]

@Czarcasm

The universe is made of everything, some parts more than others.

Are you calling it eclectic? Or just a mess?

[velomont]

@dracoi

The problem with answering the question is that it’s a little hard to define it without being self-referential…What is a quark made of?" is almost a metaphysical question rather than a scientific one.

So true, to the extent that it’s difficult for me to frame the question without a gazillion analogies. And at least I’m not self-reverential.

And “Oh my, just as I suspected. Space is made up of giant breasts, with Venezuelan Beaver Cheese as an added bonus.
Poor Velomont. A simple question (hopefully answered) and he/she gets a physics lesson from aliens.” No problem:D I (a “he”) expect good stuff of this ilk from the dope. And saying that I am trying to keep abreast of the latest in astrophysics would probably be too cheesy a pun:)

[Senegoid]

@Chronos

How does the old quote go? Particles can’t be made of stuff, because stuff is made of particles.

I heard it as:
“Stuff is made of particles. Therefore particles cannot be made of stuff.”
Attributed to Raymond Hall of Fermilab.

Discussed in detail by Stranger On A Train here and here.

[eschereal]

It is an interwoven tapestry of gauge lattices which manifest stuff in the form of “frustrated plaqettes” and are both/neither regular-and-symmetrical and/or amorphous and/or structurally some third quality.

Or, it is comprised of that which, when that one particular Tralfamidoran presses the red button, as we all know he will and there is nothing we can or should do to stop him, will be unmade.

[Asympotically_fat]

The problem with string cheese theory and the alternative hypothesis that the Universe is made up of cottage cheese (quark), is that they don’t account for the high abundance of wensleydale, such as we can see in the Moon. Therefore I have to agree the type of cheese the Universe is made out of would have to be the type of cheese that could be used in a mousetrap.

[eschereal]

At least the physicists have found ways to discern the subtle difference between the immense vacuousness and the pervasive snark matter.

[rsa]

@Martian Bigfoot

I’m no expert, but I have heard people who speak quantum field theory say things like “the universe is made of fields”. (Hey, what can I say, I go on some strange dates sometimes.)

Particles can be thought of as excitations of fields. Every type of particle has an associated field, which extend through space. (Sometimes infinitely, and sometimes, I think, not. I’m not sure, I got distracted by my date’s cleavage when she got to that part.) There’s your electromagnetic field, your gravitational field, other fields for types of quark, your Higgs field, and so forth.

Of course, then the question is: “What are fields made of?”

Thankfully, the answer to that one is simple: Venezuelan beaver cheese.

From one of Prof. Strassler’s replies in the comments section of Matt Strassler’s virtual particle article:

The fields are the fundamental ingredients in the universe, according to current views. They aren’t made from anything else. Everything else is made from them, and their ripples.

[Senegoid]

We’re all just a collage of waveforms!