I'll always remember the reaction Bart Simpson had when he was told something that he thought was profound. His little body stiffened, his eyes got big, and it was as if the cartoon character entered an altered state of consciousness. Well, that almost happened to me.

It was over something said by the EU's High Representative, Javier Solana. Solana, as you know, is charged with what some believe to be an impossible task. His job is to find and implement a common foreign policy strategy that all the 25 EU heads can agree upon. Well, while Solana was explaining why he thought the recent UN vote was a victory for his common foreign policy, Solana said something that almost made me do a Bart Simpson. Solana said:

The EU is not a rabble of states. It is a sort of molecule with joint electrons. These enable all of us to act together and make binding political decisions Read about it here.

Here Solana, who also happens to be a professor of physics, compares the social movements of people with the movement of atoms.

The reason this so intrigued me was because it may help us understand how this man has managed to be in the right place at the right time. You see, what Solana is doing is applying his knowledge of physics to understand another scientific field -- sociology. Sociology is the study of social behavior -- what makes people do what they do Read about it here.

In other words, what Solana may be doing is using his knowledge of the natural laws that govern matter to develop a theory that will help him understand and control populations. And, evidently, it's been working.

I don't know about you, but that kind of does a Bart Simpson on me.