1."The charged protons and the uncharged neutrons of the nucleus of the atom are held together by the reciprocating function of the mesotron, a particle of matter 180 times as heavy as the electron. Without this arrangement the electric charge carried by the protons would be disruptive of the atomic nucleus.

2. "As atoms are constituted, neither electric nor gravitational forces could hold the nucleus together. The integrity of the nucleus is maintained by the reciprocal cohering function of the mesotron, which is able to hold charged and uncharged particles together because of superior force-mass power and by the further function of causing protons and neutrons constantly to change places. The mesotron causes the electric charge of the nuclear particles to be incessantly tossed back and forth between protons and neutrons. At one infinitesimal part of a second a given nuclear particle is a charged proton and the next an uncharged neutron. And these alternations of energy status are so unbelievably rapid that the electric charge is deprived of all opportunity to function as a disruptive influence. Thus does the mesotron function as an "energy-carrier" particle which mightily contributes to the nuclear stability of the atom.

3. "The presence and function of the mesotron also explains another atomic riddle. When atoms perform radioactively, they emit far more energy than would be expected. This excess of radiation is derived from the breaking up of the mesotron "energy carrier," which thereby becomes a mere electron. The mesotronic disintegration is also accompanied by the emission of certain small uncharged particle.

4. "The mesotron explains certain cohesive properties of the atomic nucleus, but it does not account for the cohesion of proton to proton nor for the adhesion of neutron to neutron. The paradoxical and  powerful force of atomic cohesive integrity is a form of energy as yet undiscovered on Urantia." (479)

For me, this is one of the truly remarkable passages on science from a Urantia Paper said to have been written in 1934. I first read it in the early 1970's and recognized paragraphs 1 and 2 as the basic postulates of a theory for which Hideki Yukawa was awarded the Nobel prize in 1948. From the 1950's to the 1970's, particle physics was in a state of confusion because of the multitudes of sub-atomic particles that came spewing forth from particle accelerators. As new concepts and discoveries were announced, I kept noting them in the margins of page 479, which eventually became somewhat messy. At times I felt that there was not much that was right on this page, at other times I marvelled at its accuracy.

In recent years, a considerable amount of information has been forthcoming on the history of development of the present "standard model" for atomic structure. Though recognized as being incomplete, the standard model has enormously increased our understanding of the basic nature of matter. The electromagnetic force and the weak force of radiocactive decay have been successfully unified to  yield the "electroweak" theory. As yet this has not been unified with the theory of the "strong" force that holds the atomic nucleus together. The force of gravity remains intractable to unification with the others.

Para's 1-3 above from The Urantia Book, ostensibly presented in 1934, could have come directly from the mind of Hideki Yukawa. In the quantum theory of electromagnetism, two charged particles interact when one emits a photon and the other absorbs it. In 1932 Yukawa had decided to attempt a similar approach to describe the nuclear force field. He wrote, "...it seemed likely that the nuclear force was a third fundamental force, unrelated to gravitation or electromagnetism... which could also find expression as a field... Then if one visualizes the force field as a game of 'catch' between protons and neutrons, the crux of the problem would be to find the nature of the 'ball' or particle." This work was published in Japanese in 1935, but was not well known in the U.S.A.

At first, Yukawa followed the work of Heisenberg and used a field of electrons to supply the nuclear force between protons and neutrons. This led to problems. In 1934 he decided "to look no longer among the known particles for the particle of the nuclear force field. He wrote: "The crucial point came one night in October. The nuclear force is effective at extremely small distances, on the order of 0.02 trillionth of a centimeter. My new insight was the realization that this distance and the mass of the new particle I was seeking are inversely related to each other." He realized he could make the range of the nuclear force correct if he allowed the ball in the game of 'catch' to be heavy-- approximately 200 times heavier than the electron."

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Para. 3 above extends Fermi's 1934 theory of radio-active decay of the neutron. In his early work, Yukawa had considered that his mesotron might act as the 'ball' in the 'catch' game during radioactive decay.  After re-running his calculations, in 1938 he published a paper predicting the properties of such a mesotron which he now called a 'weak' photon, from which it became known as the 'W' particle.

Para's 1-3 come close to being the contemporary, but incredibly speculative, science of 1934. They include three unknown particles--the pion mesotron (found 1947), the W particle mesotron (found 1983), and the small uncharged particles (neutrinos found 1953). Few would have bet on these predictions being right.

Para 2. comments, "the alternations of energy status are unbelievably rapid..." According to Nobel prize winner, Steven Weinberg, they occur in the order of a million, million, million, millionth of a second. In contrast, the process described in para. 3 takes about a hundredth of a second.

Para. 4 states that  the mesotron (pion) does not account for certain cohesive properties of the atomic nucleus. It then tells us that there is an aspect of this force that is as yet undiscovered on Urantia.

Leon Lederman was a young research worker in 1950 who later became director of the Fermi Laboratory. He was awarded the Nobel prize in 1988. In his book, "The God Particle", he comments: "The hot particle of 1950 was the pion or pi meson, as it is also called. The pion had been predicted in 1936 by a Japanese theoretical physicist, Hideki Yukawa. It was thought to be the key to the strong force, which in those days was the big mystery. Today we think of the strong force in terms of gluons. But back then (i.e. 1950's), pions which fly back and forth between the protons to hold them together tightly in the nucleus were the key, and we needed to make and study them."

This force, unknown in 1934, (and for that matter in 1955 when The Urantia Book was published) is now known as the color force. Writing about it in their book, "The Particle Explosion," Close, Marten, and Sutton state, "Back in the 1940's and 1950's, theorists thought that pions were the transmitters of the strong force. But experiments later showed that pions and other hadrons are composite particles, built from quarks, and the theory of the strong force had to be revised completely. We now believe that it is the color within the proton and the neutron that attracts them to each other to build nuclei. This process may have similarities to the way that electrical charge within atoms manages to build up complex molecules. Just as electrons are exchanged between atoms bound within a molecule, so are quarks and anti-quarks--in clusters we call 'pions'--exchanged between the protons and neutrons in a nucleus."

The mandate to the revelators permitted "the supplying of information which will fill in vital missing gaps in otherwise earned knowledge." (1110) Whether any physicist ever effectively utilized the information in para. 4 of page 479, we will probably never know. But there are "more things on heaven and earth"... For example, "Physics, it is hoped, will one day reach the ultimate level of nature in which everything can be described and from which the entire universe develops. This belief could be called the quest for the ultimon." (from E David Peat, 1988, "Superstrings and the Search for the Theory of Everything.") There is a curious coincidence here. The particle The Urantia Book called a mesotron became shortened to meson. It calls the basic building block of matter an ultimaton. Will it one day be called the ultimon?

Ken Glasziou, Maleny, Australia.