Particle chauvinism is the term used by British
astrophysicist Martin Rees
Martin John Rees, Baron Rees of Ludlow One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from the royalsociety.org website where: (born 23 June 1942) is a British cosmologist and astrophysicist. He is the fifteenth Astronomer Royal, ...
to describe the (allegedly erroneous) assumption that what we think of as normal matter –
atoms,
quarks
A quark () is a type of elementary particle and a fundamental constituent of matter. Quarks combine to form composite particles called hadrons, the most stable of which are protons and neutrons, the components of atomic nuclei. All commonly ...
,
electrons
The electron ( or ) is a subatomic particle with a negative one elementary electric charge. Electrons belong to the first generation of the lepton particle family,
and are generally thought to be elementary particles because they have no ...
, etc. (excluding
dark matter
Dark matter is a hypothetical form of matter thought to account for approximately 85% of the matter in the universe. Dark matter is called "dark" because it does not appear to interact with the electromagnetic field, which means it does not a ...
or other matter) – is the basis of matter in the universe, rather than a rare phenomenon.
Dominance of dark matter
With the growing recognition in the late 20th century of the presence of
dark matter
Dark matter is a hypothetical form of matter thought to account for approximately 85% of the matter in the universe. Dark matter is called "dark" because it does not appear to interact with the electromagnetic field, which means it does not a ...
in the universe, ordinary
baryonic matter
In particle physics, a baryon is a type of composite subatomic particle which contains an odd number of valence quarks (at least 3). Baryons belong to the hadron family of particles; hadrons are composed of quarks. Baryons are also classifie ...
has come to be seen as something of a cosmic afterthought. As
John D. Barrow
John David Barrow (29 November 1952 – 26 September 2020) was an English cosmologist, theoretical physicist, and mathematician. He served as Gresham Professor of Geometry at Gresham College from 2008 to 2011. Barrow was also a writer of pop ...
put it, "This would be the final
Copernican twist in our status in the material universe. Not only are we not at the center of the universe: we are not even made of the predominant form of matter."
The 21st century saw the share of baryonic matter in the total energy of the universe downgraded further, to perhaps as low as 1%, further extending what has been called the demise of particle chauvinism, before being revised up to some 5% of the contents of the universe.
[S Clark, ''The Unknown Universe'' (London 2016) p. 13]
See also
*
Anthropic principle
*
Carbon chauvinism
Carbon chauvinism is a neologism meant to disparage the assumption that the chemical processes of hypothetical extraterrestrial life must be constructed primarily from carbon (organic compounds) because as far as we know, carbon's chemical and t ...
*
Mediocrity principle
The mediocrity principle is the philosophical notion that "if an item is drawn at random from one of several sets or categories, it's more likely to come from the most numerous category than from any one of the less numerous categories". The prin ...
References
External links
Why does dark matter matter?
{{Particles
Astronomical hypotheses
Chauvinism
Exceptionalism
Physical cosmology
Dark matter