An electron and a positron (both fermions) can “annihilate” each other and give rise to a pair of photons (bosons) flying off in opposite directions. But since matter and energy are both conserved (actually the sum of matter and energy), is this really “annihilation”? High-energy photons can, in turn, “create” electron-positron pairs. Again, is this really “creation”? The sum of matter and energy cannot be either created or destroyed, according to the First Law of Thermodynamics. Why do we always think of this from the viewpoint of matter rather than energy? We call the matter to energy (fermions to bosons) process annihilation, the energy to matter (bosons to fermions) process creation. In reality, both are only transformations of an underlying common entity.

We can think of bosons as energy and fermions as matter (loosely speaking), as we did above. But both are really both, being easily interconvertible). It is the bosons that have the integral spins, and that can massively coordinate into the “supers” (superconductivity and superfluidity), lasers, and Bose-Einstein condensates. Fermions have half-spins, and cannot occupy the same space at the same time; they are “impenetrable”, which is probably why we think of them as forming matter.

However, when fermions pair up (mate?), they too, like bosons, can change phase into macro-coherence (supers, lasers, etc.). It is as if fermions were the 1N generation (gametes) and the electron pair the 2N generation zygote in the sexual reproduction of ferns and mosses (and most other creatures, as a matter of fact). The electron pairs, incidentally, are called “Cooper pairs” to honour the discoverer, but I like to think of it as “cooper-ation”.

“All is matter”, said the materialist scientists of previous centuries. “All is energy”, say the New-Agers of our own era. (Cf. the “Celestine Prophecy”) Why not include both Matter and Energy, as a common essence, and in turn enlivened by Information and Meaning in the higher realms of Mind?

But they are really super-symmetric! The super-symmetry transformation (boson-fermion exchange) is another process, in addition to the annihilation — pair creation already discussed, of changing matter into energy and vice versa.

Both fermions and bosons, of course, partake of the nature of both particles and waves, as all quantum-sized objects do. But I tend to think of bosons more as waves (since they are carriers of the four fundamental forces, and since photons are light, usually conceived as waves) and fermions more as particles (since they share the classic nature of matter, namely impenetrability). But since neither fermions nor bosons are totally waves or totally particles, this again shows the essential unity of matter and energy.