Let There Be Science by David Hutchings & Tom McLeish

Author:David Hutchings & Tom McLeish
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Lion Hudson
Published: 2017-11-15T00:00:00+00:00

Nearly a century after Einstein began his attempts to find exactly this equation, the hunt continues. It is a journey of both hope and pain. There is hope that an answer exists and there is pain because it has not yet appeared. Sometimes the task is lonely and thankless, as theoretician Brian Greene observes:

For long stretches during those decades [Einstein] was the sole searcher for such a unified theory, and his passionate yet solitary quest alienated him from the mainstream physics community.8

Einstein never got his answer. Just as Robert Brown died before unlocking the mystery of his “ever-present motion” and Ignaz Semmelweis was killed before the discovery of germs, the mighty German left this life without a solution. In their scientific work all three of them suffered, intellectually at the very least. What kept them going was hope – and this hope did not die when they did.

An Answer with Strings Attached

Brian Greene has brought far more to science than just biographies of great physicists; he is one of the cheerleaders for a GUT candidate known often as “string theory”. String theory is an attempt to bring quantum mechanics and general relativity together in wonderful non-contradictory harmony.

Like the two warring worldviews, it is predominantly mathematical – more so, even. In essence, string theory limits how closely we can “zoom in” on space when we look at it. It therefore prevents us from saying whether space is smooth or whether it has holes, because we can’t see the surface well enough to be sure. The contradiction literally disappears from view.

For those who think this is a correct way of heading towards our GUT, the final equation is within reach: it will be found within string theory once it is fully understood. For those who do not think it is correct, string theory is simply mathematical cheating with no grounding in the physical world. Neither group is shy in putting its point across. First, here is Greene:

String theory is the most developed theory with the capacity to unite general relativity and quantum mechanics in a consistent manner. I do believe the universe is consistent, and therefore I do believe that general relativity and quantum mechanics should be put together in a manner that makes sense.9

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