Yet Einstein never pursued these paths or even attempted to incorporate the nuclear forces; he remained stuck on gravity and electromagnetism, even as clear relationships were emerging between the others. The evidence was not enough to cause Einstein to change his path. Today, the electroweak force picture has been confirmed, with Grand Unification Theories GUTs theoretically adding the strong force to the works, and string theory finally, at the highest energy scales, as the leading candidate for bringing gravity into the fold.
As Oppenheimer said of Einstein,. During all the end of his life, Einstein did no good. He turned his back on experiments Even geniuses get it wrong more often than not. It would serve us all well to remember that making mistakes is okay; it's failing to learn from them that should shame us.
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Edit Story. According to Einstein, space-time is warped by matter and energy, but quantum physics says matter and energy exist in multiple states simultaneously — they can be both here and over there. It's kind of embarrassing," she said. Try and use general relativity and quantum theory together, and it doesn't work. One is the highest probability possible — it means an outcome is certain. You can't be more certain than certain. Equally, calculations sometimes give you the answer infinity, which has no real physical meaning.
The two theories are therefore mathematically inconsistent. So, like many monarchs throughout history, physicists are seeking a marriage between rival factions to secure peace. They're searching for a theory of quantum gravity — the ultimate diplomatic exercise in getting these two rivals to share the throne. This has seen theorists turn to some outlandish possibilities. Arguably the most famous is string theory. It's the idea that sub-atomic particles such as electrons and quarks are made from tiny vibrating strings.
Just as you can play strings on a musical instrument to create different notes, string theorists argue that different combinations of strings create different particles. The attraction of the theory is that it can reconcile general relativity and quantum physics, at least on paper. However, to pull that particular rabbit out of the hat, the strings have to vibrate across eleven dimensions — seven more than the four in Einstein's space-time fabric.
As yet there is no experimental evidence that these extra dimensions really exist. Partly inspired by string theory's perceived failings, other physicists have turned to an alternative called Loop Quantum Gravity LQG. They can get the two theories to play nicely if they do away with one of the central tenets of general relativity: That space-time is a smooth, continuous fabric. Instead, they argue, space-time is made up of a series of interwoven loops — that it has structure at the smallest size scales.
This is a bit like a length of cloth. At first glance it looks like one smooth fabric. His failure has not deterred others, however, and over half a century after his death, the quest for the ToE continues. But theorists hoping to succeed where Einstein failed are finding their own problems.
The good news is that the theory has revealed glimmerings of the cosmic unity that Einstein sought. According to some estimates, there may be at least , and no obvious way of deciding between them.
In theory, this opens up the possibility of faster-than-light travel. But such wormholes are incredibly unstable, and collapse unless held apart by a kind of force field.
Suitable fields are theoretically possible, but no-one knows how to make them strong enough for the job. According to General Relativity, any sudden motion of mass creates waves in the fabric of space and time, which spread out across the Universe like ripples on a pond.
The suggestion that the speed of light can change is based on data collected by UNSW astronomer John Webb, who posed a conundrum when he found that light from a distant quasar, a star-like object, had absorbed the wrong type of photons from interstellar clouds on its 12 billion year journey to earth. Davies said fundamentally Webb's observations meant that the structure of atoms emitting quasar light was slightly but ever so significantly different to the structure of atoms in humans.
The discrepancy could only be explained if either the electron charge, or the speed of light, had changed. To establish which of the two constants might not be that constant after all, Davies' team resorted to the study of black holes, mysterious astronomical bodies that suck in stars and other galactic features.
They also applied another dogma of physics, the second law of thermodynamics, which Davies summarizes as "you can't get something for nothing.
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