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THE SCIENTIFIC FOUNDATIONS OF JAINISM
living species, one goes beyond evolution and tries to encompass the whole of creation. It tries to answer the fundamental question of the evolution of life as an individual mechanism.
(3) Exchangeability of matter and energy. One of the most revolutionary ideas of Albert Einstein was the claim that matter can be converted to energy and vice versa, i.e. matter and energy are exchangeable. This concept has been with Jains for centuries. Pudgala is the word that is used to describe this phenomenon (see Chapter 4). Explicit in this word is that matter and energy are the two sides of the same coin. As we know there is no terminology to describe this phenomenon in the Greek language and therefore no such scientific expression. The best one can do is to write massenergy for this profound concept.
(4) Fundamental forces. Science recognises at present four fundamental forces: gravitational, electro-magnetic, weak nuclear and strong nuclear. Investigations are in progress to reduce these forces to a single “superforce”. Importantly, Jain's concept of karmic force/animation force, which must be an additional force requiring further studies, might explain various non-physical phenomena such as mind over matter. If such forces do exist, the underlying particles of this force are karmons which have subtle properties because of their absorption into anything living. Thus it will make tracking them down much more difficult.
In Chapter 4, we have mentioned that the two Jain existents - Dynamic and Stationary Media-can be viewed as Dynamic and Stationary forces which allow interaction (non-uniform motion) and equilibrium (in uniform motion?) between/ within soul and matter. This may be the qualitative answer to a super-force. Jain, G.R. (1975) identifies the Dynamic Medium as the non-material Aether of space, whereas the Stationary Medium is identified as the unified force of Gravitation and Electro-magnetism.
We now discuss these in detail in the following sections.
tween
force
aethe
10.2 MODERN PARTICLE PHYSICS
As is already known, the discovery of electrons at the end of the last century by J.J. Thomson led to further investigation of similar constituents of chemical elements, namely atoms. It was around 1910 that Rutherford and others first discovered that atoms contain electrons and a nucleus. (The nucleus contains neutrons and protons which are collectively called nucleons.) It is known that electrons are negatively charged particles (charge = -1) and neutrons are
