Cell Language Theory, The: Connecting Mind And Matter

Biosemiotics 269

“6x9” b2861 The Cell Language Theory: Connecting Mind and Matter

6.6 The Quark Model of the Peircean Sign [279]

There is a striking family resemblance between particle physics and

Peircean semiotics. There are at least 11 instances in physics where the

number 3 plays an essential role as in Peircean semiotics, as pointed out

by Christiansen [292]:

(1) Three generations of elementary particles — quarks (second row in

Table 6.5) and leptons (third row). The electric charges of the ele-

mentary particles are given on the left-hand side of the first column,

which applies to the second and the third columns as well. The mass

of each quark is given in the angled brackets in the unit of 10^6 eV.

The mass of the elementary particles belonging to each generation

increases in the order 1 < 2 < 3, which reflects the order of discov-

ery: The accelerators measuring light particles were developed

before those able to detect heavier ones.

(2) Heavy nuclear particles, or baryons, consist of three quarks.

(3) Quarks have three colors — red, green, and blue.

(4) Quarks have strange electric charges, each being one-third of the

electron’s charge, e.

(5) Particles have three internal properties — spin, mass, and charge.

(6) Particles undergo three kinds of interactions — strong, electroweak,

and gravitational.

(7) Strong interactions are mediated by 2^3 = 8 gluons.

(8) Quarks and leptons interact weakly mediated by three intermediate

vector — bosons.

(9) Space has three dimensions.

Table 6.5 Three generations of elementary particles.

Generation 1 Generation 2 Generation 3

+2/3e: up (u) [5]

–1/3e: down (d) [9]

Charm (c) [350]

Strange (s) [160]

Top (t) [>80]

Bottom (b) [4800]

–1e: electron

0: electron neutrino

Muon

Muon neutrino

Tauon

Tauon neutrino

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