42:4.4 Gravity acts positively on the power lanes and energy channels of the power centres and the physical controllers, but these beings have only a negative relation to gravity — the exercise of their antigravity endowments.
42:4.5 Throughout all space, cold and other influences are at work creatively organizing ultimatons into electrons. Heat is the measurement of electronic activity, while cold merely signifies absence of heat — comparative energy rest — the status of the universal force-charge of space provided neither emergent energy nor organized matter were present and responding to gravity.
42:4.6 Gravity presence and action is what prevents the appearance of the theoretical absolute zero, for interstellar space does not have the temperature of absolute zero. Throughout all organized space there are gravity-responding energy currents, power circuits, and ultimatonic activities, as well as organizing electronic energies. Practically speaking, space is not empty. Even the atmosphere of Urantia thins out increasingly until at about 4,800 km it begins to shade off into the average space matter in this section of the universe. The most nearly empty space known in Nebadon would yield about 100 ultimatons — the equivalent of one electron — in 16.4 cm3 . Such scarcity of matter is regarded as practically empty space.
42:4.7 Temperature — heat and cold — is secondary only to gravity in the realms of energy and matter evolution. Ultimatons are humbly obedient to temperature extremes. Low temperatures favour certain forms of electronic construction and atomic assembly, while high temperatures facilitate all sorts of atomic breakup and material disintegration.
42:4.8 When subjected to the heat and pressure of certain internal solar states, all but the most primitive associations of matter may be broken up. Heat can thus largely overcome gravity stability. But no known solar heat or pressure can convert ultimatons back into puissant energy.
42:4.9 The blazing suns can transform matter into various forms of energy, but the dark worlds and all outer space can slow down electronic and ultimatonic activity to the point of converting these energies into the matter of the realms. Certain electronic associations of a close nature, as well as many of the basic associations of nuclear matter, are formed in the exceedingly low temperatures of open space, being later augmented by association with larger accretions of materializing energy.
42:4.10 Throughout all of this never-ending metamorphosis of energy and matter we must reckon with the influence of gravity pressure and with the antigravity behaviour of the ultimatonic energies under certain conditions of temperature, velocity, and revolution. Temperature, energy currents, distance, and the presence of the living force organizers and the power directors also have a bearing on all transmutation phenomena of energy and matter.
42:4.11 The increase of mass in matter is equal to the increase of energy divided by the square of the velocity of light. In a dynamic sense the work which resting matter can perform is equal to the energy expended in bringing its parts together from Paradise minus the resistance of the forces overcome in transit and the attraction exerted by the parts of matter on one another.
42:4.12 ¶ The existence of pre-electronic forms of matter is indicated by the two atomic weights of lead. The lead of original formation weighs slightly more than that produced through uranium disintegration by way of radium emanations; and this difference in atomic weight represents the actual loss of energy in the atomic breakup.
42:4.13 ¶ The relative integrity of matter is assured by the fact that energy can be absorbed or released only in those exact amounts which Urantia scientists have designated quanta. This wise provision in the material realms serves to maintain the universes as going concerns.
42:4.14 The quantity of energy taken in or given out when electronic or other positions are shifted is always a “quantum” or some multiple thereof, but the vibratory or wavelike behaviour of such units of energy is wholly determined by the dimensions of the material structures concerned. Such wavelike energy ripples are 860 times the diameters of the ultimatons, electrons, atoms, or other units thus performing. The never-ending confusion attending the observation of the wave mechanics of quantum behaviour is due to the superimposition of energy waves: Two crests can combine to make a double-height crest, while a crest and a trough may combine, thus producing mutual cancellation.
5. WAVE-ENERGY MANIFESTATIONS
42:5.1 In the superuniverse of Orvonton there are 100 octaves of wave energy. Of these 100 groups of energy manifestations, 64 are wholly or partially recognized on Urantia. The sun’s rays constitute 4 octaves in the superuniverse scale, the visible rays embracing a single octave, number 46 in this series. The ultraviolet group comes next, while 10 octaves up are the X rays, followed by the γ-rays[1] of radium. 32 octaves above the visible light of the sun are the outer-space energy rays so frequently commingled with their associated highly energized minute particles of matter. Next downward from visible sunlight appear the infrared rays, and 30 octaves below are the radio transmission group.
42:5.2 ¶ Wavelike energy manifestations — from the standpoint of XX century Urantia scientific enlightenment — may be classified into the following 10 groups:
42:5.3 1. Infraultimatonic rays — the borderland revolutions of ultimatons as they begin to assume definite form. This is the 1st stage of emergent energy in which wavelike phenomena can be detected and measured.
42:5.4 2. Ultimatonic rays. The assembly of energy into the minute spheres of the ultimatons occasions vibrations in the content of space which are discernible and measurable. And long before physicists ever discover the ultimaton, they will undoubtedly detect the phenomena of these rays as they shower in upon Urantia. These short and powerful rays represent the initial activity of the ultimatons as they are slowed down to that point where they veer towards the electronic organization of matter. As the ultimatons aggregate into electrons, condensation occurs with a consequent storage of energy.
42:5.5 3. The short space rays. These are the shortest of all purely electronic vibrations and represent the preatomic stage of this form of matter. These rays require extraordinarily high or low temperatures for their production. There are two sorts of these space rays: one attendant upon the birth of atoms and the other indicative of atomic disruption. They emanate in the largest quantities from the densest plane of the superuniverse, the Milky Way, which is also the densest plane of the outer universes.
42:5.6 4. The electronic stage. This stage of energy is the basis of all materialization in the 7 superuniverses. When electrons pass from higher to lower energy levels of orbital revolution, quanta are always given off. Orbital shifting of electrons results in the ejection or the absorption of very definite and uniform measurable particles of light-energy, while the individual electron always gives up a particle of light-energy when subjected to collision. Wavelike energy manifestations also attend upon the performances of the positive bodies and the other members of the electronic stage.
42:5.7 5. Gamma rays — those emanations which characterize the spontaneous dissociation of atomic matter. The best illustration of this form of electronic activity is in the phenomena associated with radium disintegration.
[1]
γ-rays, In 1955 text: Y rays. From external reference to physics, and multiple internal cross-references (see for example 42:5.7), gamma is clearly intended here. As to the origin of the “Y” in the 1955 text, it is likely that the Greek letter “γ” (gamma) was mistakenly transposed into “Y” at some point in the preparation of the original edition (probably at the time of the first typing from the original manuscript) either because of a faulty inference from the immediately preceding X, from an unfamiliarity with the Greek alphabet, or simply because there was no better way to represent the character on a standard typewriter. Even though a typesetter would have been able to place the Greek letter “γ” on the page, the later decision to replace that letter with gamma is clear, reasonable, and consistent with the usage found elsewhere throughout The Urantia Book.