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The Blackwinged Night
Chapter 6: All About Time

This chapter is about a mystery. Science has deciphered many puzzles. It has split the atom and discovered families of elementary particles. In turn, these families have dissolved into quarks and superstrings. As to the universe itself, scientists believe it began in a Big Bang followed by a period of very rapid expansion. They have also uncovered clues about the origin of life and believe that it may extend throughout the universe. They have discovered encoded instructions for growth and development within the DNA molecule. Some scientists even believe they are piecing together clues as to the nature of consciousness. But one great mystery remains untouched by the hand of science and that is the mystery of time.

The physicist John Wheeler summed up the problem when he asked why the equations of physics don't get up and fly. We can write down our very best laws of physics, even the most recent speculations, yet they simply won't "fly". They don't leave the paper to express a dynamical, living universe.

In other words, the essential nature of a truly dynamical time is missing from physics. If time's real nature is ever pieced together the implications will be even more revolutionary than quantum theory and relativity. And within the mystery of time may also reside some clue as to the source of creativity.

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