THE

STRUCTURE

OF

REALITY

As Einstein once wrote, The most incomprehensible thing about the universe is that it is comprehensible. Thanks not least to him, our understanding has progressed in leaps and bounds over the past century or so. A few basic principles underlie two grand theories of nature,
general relativity and quantum mechanics. But where these theories meet they are incompatible, and the models that build on them create other, currently indecipherable problems. Some new solutions will be needed if we are to complete our picture of the structure of reality

PRINCIPLES

PRINCIPLES

PRINCIPLES

PRINCIPLES

PRINCIPLES

THE SPEED OF LIGHT IS A CONSTANT

THE EQUIVALENCE PRINCIPLE

THE COSMOLOGICAL PRINCIPLE

QUANTISATION

UNCERTAINTY

WAVE-PARTICLE DUALITY

Nothing can exceed this cosmic speed limit

Gravity and acceleration

always look the same

The universe is the same in all places

and in all directions

Things come in bite-size chunks

Theres a limit to how much any of us can know

Quantum objects exist in many different guises at once

In the 16th century, Galileo noticed that falling objects

A few decades before Galileo, Copernicus dared to suggest that Earth

Back in the 1860s, James Clerk Maxwell was melding electricity

and magnetism into one unified theory. But however he sliced the

The origin of quantum theory was, quite literally, a light-bulb moment.

If you kick a football, knowing where itis doesnt stop you knowing where

The discovery in the early 20th century that light comes divided into

In1900, Max Planck was trying todescribe mathematically the energy

its going. Not so with a subatomic particle. The more precisely you know its

discrete, localised chunks particles created a puzzle. Light also interferes

position, the less precisely you know its momentum, and vice versa.

equations, they only made sense if light travelled through space at the

accelerated at the same rate regardless of their mass. A feather and

was not a special place in the cosmos. A century or so later Newton in his

output of light bulbs, and so make better ones. Existing theories failed to

same constant speed, regardless of the speed of its source.

a hammer dropped from the Leaning Tower of Pisa will hit the ground

great treatise Principia assumed that the solar system was embedded in a

match reality. After a few false starts, Planck found he could bridge the gap

with itself, diffracts and otherwise acts as if it is a non-localised wave.

This is the quantum uncertainty principle, devised by the Werner

In 1924, Louis de Broglie proposed thatthis behaviour was universal and

This is odd. If someone fires a bullet from a moving car, to a bystander

at the same time, once you discount air resistance. During the Apollo

uniform space that extended vast distances in all directions.

by making a radical assumption: the electromagnetic energy given out by a

Heisenberg in the mid-1920s. Itconnects not just position and momentum,

the bullet travels at the sum of its speed and the cars speed. Yet when

15 lunar landing, astronaut David Scott confirmed that principle on

These are the origins of what in modern cosmology has morphed into the

radiating body was emitted not continuously, but in indivisible packets.

but energy and time anda whole host of other pairs of quantities.

20 years later US physicists Albert Michelson and Edward Morley

the airless moon.

cosmological principle: gaze out into the universe and everything is more or

were looking for the luminiferous ether, a medium supposed to carry

Newton showed that this could only be true if an odd coincidence

worked both ways: if wave-like light can act like a particle, electrons and
other matter particles can also act like waves.

Planck initially thought these quanta were a limitation of the theory,

Uncertainty doesnt comefrom the accuracy of our measuring devices: it is

apparently a fundamental limit on how much we can know about the world.

In this dual wave-particle picture, a quantum object exists in a wave-like

less the same everywhere and in whatever direction you look. Local clumps

not a description of reality. But in 1905, Einstein showed that the way some

held: inertial mass, which quantifies a bodys resistance to

of matter exist in the form of solar systems, galaxies and clusters of

metals expel electrons when light shines on them the photoelectric effect

speed of light is a constant.

acceleration, must always equal gravitational mass, which

galaxies, but on a big enough scale, everything averages out to uniformity.

could also be explained by assuming that light is made of discrete particle-

particles to tunnel through otherwise insurmountable energy barriers

experiment about a cat that is simultaneously alive and dead. But

Not only that, it is the ultimate cosmic speed limit. No influence not

quantifies a bodys response to gravity. There is no obvious reason

Its a simplification that makes the mathematics a lot easier when were

like quanta, which he called photons. This was just the beginning. As

to initiate nuclear fusion in the sun, for example. It also enables them to

experiments since have made single particles as large as buckyballs

molecules made of 60 carbon atoms diffract and interfere at two slits as if

light, they reached the same conclusion: however you look at it, the

superposition of all its possible positions or states, only settling in one

Uncertainty shapes our world in unsuspected ways. It allows

state on measurement. Erwin Schrdinger lampooned this idea in his thought

matter, not information, not gravity or any other force may travel

why this should be so, yet no experiment has ever prised these two

trying to build a working model of the cosmos. But our limited view makes it

quantum theory developed, it became clear that not just energy, but many

pop up out of a seemingly empty vacuum for short periods an ability

faster than it. Reports of cosmic speed breakers, such as faster-than-

quantities apart. As with lights constant speed, it was Einstein who

difficult to say whether it truly is a universally valid principle. The

other properties such as electric charge and spin, come in units of a

thatscrucial for explaining howthequantum forces that shape

they were a wave, and superposition is one basis of the much-touted,

light neutrinos announced in 2011, have always turned out to be wrong.

declared this equivalence a principle of nature.

discovery of ever-bigger structures, for example, 2013s whopping 10

minimum size. Why that should be, no one knows.

reality operate.

enhanced information-processing power of future quantum computers.

Einstein raised the constant speed of light to a principle of nature, and

billion-light-years-wide arc of galaxies dubbed the Hercules-Corona

began to rebuild physics around it the starting point of his twin

Borealis Great Wall, is calling that into question.

theories of relativity.

GENERAL
RELATIVITY

QUANTUM
MECHANICS

Einsteins warped theory of gravity

The theory of subatomic particles and forces

SPECIAL RELATIVITY

If motion warps space and time (see Special relativity, left),

If general relativity is the theory of the universe at large,

As Einstein worked out, the principle of a constant speed of light

then so does acceleration and gravity is a form of acceleration.

on small scales quantum mechanics calls the shots. Derived from

has some odd consequences. In everyday experience, twocars

Thats the lesson of Einsteins magisterial general theory of

the principles of quantisation, uncertainty and wave-particle

approaching each other at 100kilometres an hour would collide at

relativity of 1916, which combines special relativity and the

duality, it is a peerless predictor of the workings of subatomic

particles although the principles behind it often remain counter-

double that, 200 km/h. But imagine youre sitting in one of two

equivalence principle into our working theory of gravity. Massive

spaceships approaching each other, each travelling at 90 per cent

objects bend space and time around them, making things seem

intuitive and mysterious. Like general relativity, quantum

the speed of light, c. From the perspective of one, at what speed is the

to accelerate towards them. General relativity provides a

mechanics is just a framework. Before it can be applied to

other approaching?

framework to explain the large-scale workings of the

GRAVITY

In Einsteins special theory of relativity of 1905, time and space warp

further information: how matter is

to accommodate lights speed limit. Moving clocks tick slower and

distributed.

the workings of real particles that often move at close

Gravity explains why we feel a downwards pull

towards Earth and why Earth orbits the sun. Although
dominant over cosmic scales and near very large
masses like planets or stars, its actually by far the
weakest of the four known forces of nature and the
only one not explained by quantum theory.

universe, but a cosmological model requires

The exact figure doesnt matter* but it cant be bigger than c.

moving rulers appear shorter, so there is no one objective measure of

time and space and you really will age less in a speeding spacecraft.

to the speed of light, it must be married in

some way with special relativity.

QUANTUM FIELD THEORIES

ENTANGLEMENT

Mass and energy are interchangeable, so says special relativity. Particles

Einstein didnt think much of this consequence of quantum theory when

can pop out of nowhere, says quantum theory. Quantum field theory

he proposed it with two other physicists in 1935. The states of two once-

to light speed they become hugely significant, and ensure no object

marries those ideas to depict all particles as excitations in underlying

correlated quantum particles can remain correlated, even when they are

can ever cover a given space in a shorter time than light can.

fields. The British physicist Paul Dirac started the ball rolling in the late

separated by a long distance. Interfering with one appears to have a

1920s with his equation describing how relativistic electrons behave.

spontaneous effect on the other. Einstein dismissed this as spooky action

At our normal speeds, these warping effects are negligible, but close

*Its 99.4 per cent of the speed of light

The Dirac equation had a sting in its tail: it predicted the existence of a

GRAVITATIONAL WAVES

E=m c 2

This most famous equation of physics stems from special relativity,

and says that mass is just a concentrated form of energy, connected by
the constant speed of light. So bash particles together at very high
energies, as in CERNs Large Hadron Collider, and you can create other,
more massive particles a path of discovery that eventually led to the
standard model of particle physics.

Many experiments have since shown no trace of that physical influence.

discovered in cosmic rays a few years later. It was the first of a whole new

If it does exist, it must travel at least 10,000 times faster than light, in

menagerie of particles that theorists proposed as quantum field theories

flagrant defiance of Einsteins own special relativity. The current distance

evolved and that later popped up in reality.

record for entanglement stands at 143 kilometres between photons on two

different CanaryIslands with plans to extend tests intoouter space.

THE STANDARD MODEL

OF PARTICLE PHYSICS

When Einstein first used general relativity to build a cosmic

The product of many decades of theoretical work, meticulously

model, he followed the orthodoxy of the day and assumed the

confirmed by experiment, the standard model of particle physics

universe was static: neither expanding nor contracting. Observations in

covers the workings of three of the four forces of nature. It describes the

the 1920s, however, showed that distant galaxies are redshifted as if they

interactions of force-carrying boson particles with matter-making fermions,

are moving away from us. Others then used his theory, plus the simplifying

and two quantum field theories lie at its heart. Quantum electrodynamics

cosmological principle that the universes matter is uniformly

infinitesimal pinprick of the big bang some 13.8

billion years ago and contains a few surprises
that we still find hard to explain.

PROBLEMS

of the strong nuclear force. The crowning glory of the standard

model came in 2012, with the discovery of the Higgs
boson, predicted almost five decades earlier. This
leaves a theory that is complete yet also

ELECTROMAGNETIC FORCE

strangely incomplete.

Transmitted by massless photons of light, this is

the most familiar of the quantum forces, governing
all electric and magnetic phenomena.

WEAK FORCE

THE HIGGS BOSON

The weak force governs nuclear processes such as

radioactive beta decays that are crucial, for example, in
how the sun burns its fuel. It is transmitted by massive
particles known as W and Z bosons.

PP RR OO BB LL EE MM SS

Transmitted by bosons called gluons,

this strong, very short-range force binds
quarks together to make particles such
as protons and neutrons.

weak nuclear force. Quantum chromodynamics (QCD) is the theory

Discovered by accident in 1964 as a background

hiss in a gigantic telecoms receiver, this cool sea of
radiation is now seen as clinching evidence of the big
bang. The oldest light in the universe, it was sent on
its way some 380,000 years after the big bang, when
the cosmos had cooled enough for the first atoms to
form, allowing photons to travel freely. Probes
collecting this light, most recently ESAs Planck
mission, have mapped it in fine detail, providing
information on the universes earliest years and its
make-up today.

describes a universe that began in the hot, dense,

STRONG FORCE

(QED) is the unified electroweak theory of electromagnetism and the

THE COSMIC
MICROWAVE BACKGROUND

distributed, to build models of an expanding universe. This was the

beginning of todays standard cosmological model. It

regulate entanglement. Thus quantum mechanics must be incomplete.

electric charge. The positron, the first antimatter particle, was duly

These ripples in space-time were the last

unconfirmed prediction of general relativity until they
were finally spotted in September 2015. The signal of
two massive black holes spiralling together and
merging was a triumph of painstaking, patient
detective work by the Advanced LIGO experiment.

THE STANDARD MODEL

OF COSMOLOGY

as a distance, insisting that some unseen physical influence must

particle identical to the electron in every way, apart from the opposite

PROBLEMS

Mass is the most solid property of matter, and the mass of a

fundamental particle is determined by its degree of interaction
with the Higgs boson. According to a theory first proposed in
1964, the molasses-like field associated with the Higgs provides
a drag that varies according to particle type.

PP RR OO BB LL EE MM SS

PROBLEMS

DARK MATTER

DARK ENERGY

INFLATION

FORCE UNIFICATION

FINE-TUNING

MEASUREMENT

Galaxies rotate too quickly for their visible matter

The universe is flying apart faster and faster

Faster-than-light expansion spawns many other universes

Our theories of reality dont get along

We cant explain the numbers that rule the universe

Do we inadvertently control everything that happens?

Earth whirls around the sun at a speed determined by its distance, the

In the late 1990s, two groups studying far-off supernovae discovered that these

Range your eye across the cosmos, and a couple of features are hard

The standard model of particle physics covers three forces of nature,

The standard model of particle physics is highly effective, but incomplete.

Features such as wave-particle dualityand entanglement highlight

suns mass and gravitys strength, which is a universal constant of nature.

stellar explosions were consistently fainter than expected. Their conclusion: the

to explain. It is darn near geometrically flat, and even far-off bits all have

but doesnt unify the electroweak and strong theories neatly. Gravity, meanwhile,

It doesnt fully explain the different strengths of weak, strong and

amystery at the heart of quantum physics. Our decision to measure

You dont need general relativity to work that out: Newtons old-school

space their light had travelled through to get to us had stretched more than

almost the same temperature.

stands apart as the only force we cant describe with quantum theory. Any effort

electromagnetic forces, for example, or the masses of the particles it

quantum objects seems to change theirnature, forcing them to collapse

gravitation will do. The same law should apply to distant galaxies swirling

expected, so the supernovae were further away than supposed.

to make it quantum to describe it through the exchange of particles called

introduces. These quantities have to be measured experimentally and

and adopt definite states. So are we co-conspirators in creating reality? If

so, what does measuring a quantum object do to it, if anything?

Cosmic inflation solves these problems at a stroke. In its earliest instants,

the universe expanded faster than light (lights speed limit only applies to things

gravitons, rather than through general relativitys space-time warpings is ripped

tacked on to the theory. Were any of them to have even marginally different

expansion. It dominates the cosmos, making up some 68 per cent of everything there

within the universe). That ironed out wrinkles in its early chaotic self and meant

apart by uncontrollable infinities that render all calculations meaningless.

values, the universe would look very different. The Higgs bosons mass, for

the outer parts of the Coma galactic cluster were rotating far faster than the

is. But what is it? Perhaps a vacuum energy of the sort that quantum particles

that even now far-flung parts were once in close contact, so could swap heat.

clusters estimated mass allowed. In the 1970s, Vera Rubin confirmed the

might create by popping in and out of free space. This would be a resurrection of

In 2014, researchers claimed to have seen ripples from inflation imprinted

huge mismatch in a clutch of spiral galaxies similar to the Milky Way. She

the cosmological constant that Einstein introduced into the equations of general

on the cosmic microwave background. But this proved mistaken, and its not

estimated they must contain about six parts of invisible matter for every

relativity, and then dropped. Or perhaps dark energy is a quintessence, an as

clear what would have made the early universe inflate anyway. Worse, inflation

Without a quantum theory of gravity a first step to a unifying theory of

amount of dark energy and dark matter in the universe seem so finely

uncertainty. Or perhaps, as Einstein believed, theres something

one part of visible matter.

yet undiscovered fifth force of nature.

is very difficult to stop, creating a multiverse of causally disconnected

everything science faces an impenetrable barrier to ultimate enlightenment.

balanced as to allow galaxies to form? Why is the carbon atom structured

fundamentally wrong in how we seequantum theory in which case weneed

so precisely as to allow enough carbon for life to exist in the universe?

to review all the principles thatunderlie it.

around their common centre of mass.

Dark energy is the name for whatever is causing this accelerating

In the 1930s, however, the astronomer Fritz Zwicky discovered that

This dark matter must interact gravitationally to produce the motion, but
hardly at all through the other forces of nature. The standard model of particle

Both identities have their problems, and there could be another way out.
A universe with a variable density of matter would expand at different rates in

universes that eternally bud off from one another.

physics provides no particle that fits the bill, and efforts to detect dark matter

different places, possibly producing an illusion of accelerated expansion. So if

light were faster in the early universe, that would also explain the temperature

particles beyond the standard model, or manufacture them in high-energy

we drop the cosmological principle we might possibly get rid of dark energy, too.

problem. Perhaps light is still slowing now, just at a rate that is imperceptible

becoming unstable.

that it can safely be ignored. But in some realms, the two must come together: in

One daring suggestion is the manyworlds hypothesis, that the

universe splits into a multiverse of possibilities every time we measure
something. Orperhaps collapse is a preprogrammed, random feature

Similar fine-tuning problems bedevil cosmology. Why does the

between gravitational and inertial mass embodied by the equivalence principle

And perhaps the most finely balanced of all: why does the cosmos have

undermining a foundation stone of modern physics.

lots of matter, and no antimatter?

ofthe quantum world, a principle just as central as wave-particle duality or

even to our most sensitive detectors.

NEUTRINOS

THE COSMOLOGICAL CONSTANT

Could neutrinos be dark matter? The standard model of particle physics says these elusive particles have no
mass, but experiments now say they do have a small one the only direct contradiction of a standard model
prediction so far. But the extra mass seems unlikely to be enough to explain dark matter, unless as-yet
undiscovered new varieties of sterile neutrino exist. Recent results from the European Space Agencys
Planck satellite and the IceCube Neutrino Observatory in Antarctica seem to discount that.

example, is just about the smallest it can be without the universes matter

black holes, for example, or in describing the universes tiny origins in the big bang.

Just by the by, any theory of quantum gravity will require breaking the link

One way out might be to weaken the constant speed of light. If the speed of

particle collisions, have so far come to naught. Something is missing.

When subatomic particles interact, gravity is generally so weak

SOLUTIONS

BLACK HOLES

When Einstein created his static universe model (see General relativity, above), he added an extra term in
the equations of general relativity to counteract gravitys pull. He later called this cosmological constant his
greatest blunder. Tweaked to represent aquantum energy of free space, it might explain dark energybut
quantum theory supplies a huge 10120 times as much as is needed to set the universe speeding on its way.
This is perhaps the most glaring numerical mismatch in all of physics.

SOLUTIONS

ANTIMATTER

Black holes are super-dense objects that swallow everything, including light, that strays too near. They
come in different sizes: supermassive black holes lurk at the heart of most galaxies, and stellar-mass ones
form when spent stars collapse in on themselves. Predicted by general relativity, black holes are also places
where gravity is so strong that it can no longer be neglected on quantum theorys small scales so we
currently have no understanding of what happens at the edge of a black hole or inside one.

SOLUTIONS

SOLUTIONS

Antimatter exists. Unwittingly predicted by Paul Dirac in 1928 (see Quantum field theories, above),
it was discovered in cosmic rays a little later. The mystery is rather why there is so little of it or indeed
anything at all. The standard model says matter and antimatter should have formed in equal quantities inthe
big bang, annihilating in a puff of light shortly after. Somecurrently inexplicable tiny imbalance caused
matter to win out allowing our universe of stars and galaxies to come to be.

SOLUTIONS

MODIFIED GRAVITY

SUPERSYMMETRY

FIFTH FORCE

STRING THEORIES

THE MULTIVERSE

INFORMATION

Our theories of gravity have only ever

been tested on small scales

More particles can explain why

the universe is as it is

Could a quintessence banish

cosmic ghosts?

An ultimate theory must subsume

quantum theory and relativity

The universe is as it is because every

other universe is out there too

Energy and matter dont matter

information is where its at

General relativity is a hugely accurate theory of gravity as far as we can tell.

Supersymmetry, or SUSY to its friends, is the Swiss army knife of particle

Gravity, electromagnetism, the weak force and the strong force... four

Many physicists dreams, including Einsteins, have been dashed in

Many roads lead to the multiverse. String theory needs it. Inflation creates

When attempting to unify general relativity and quantum theory,

But could modifying gravity perhaps exorcise some cosmic demons?

theories: it has a tool for everything. It works by suggesting that for every

seems an arbitrary number of fundamental forces. Why not more?

attempts to formulate a unifying theory of all of natures phenomena.

it. In the many-worlds solution to the measurement problem of quantum

its generally assumed that general relativity is at fault. It is, after all,

General relativitys predictions of the movements of probes and planets are

matter-making fermion in the standard model there is a force-carrying

mechanics, we are constantly, unwittingly making parallel universes.

a classical field theory of the sort that shinier quantum theories have

accurate up to the scale of the solar system, and the recent discovery of

boson, and vice versa.

The most likely fifth force is a weak, long-distance force, a bit like

In the past few decades, a popular route to a theory of everything has

gravity, that would probably interact with it. It might cancel a little of it

emerged: string theory, and in particular a variant known as M-theory. In

Double the particles means more than double the fun. Supersymmetry

and explain why the universes expansion rate is accelerating, mimicking

M-theory, matter is made not of pointlike particles as in the standard model,

happens when two orbiting black holes merge. But by cosmic standards, these

can solve fine-tuning problems such as the strangely low mass of the Higgs

dark energy. Or it could add to gravity to explain the additional pull usually

but of one-dimensional vibrating strings living in a universe with 11 space-time

systems have a lot of mass crammed into a relatively small space. What

boson: interactions with superpartner particles rein it in to just the

attributed to dark matter. Such a fifth force would have to be cunningly

dimensions. These strings vibrate in different ways to create various

happens to gravity in environments where its strength is weaker?

observed level. Calculations done in the 1980s showed that if you assumed

disguised to explain why we dont feel it. One suggestion is that the large

elementary particles even gravitons to carry a quantised gravitational force.

supersymmetry existed and extrapolated the strength of electromagnetism

amount of mass in and around the solar system shields us from its effects.

gravitational waves (above) indicates they are also spot-on about what

A tweaked version of gravity called modified Newtonian dynamics (MOND),

might describe the anomalous galactic rotations taken to be evidence for dark

and the weak and strong forces back into the early universe, they could be

matter, but there is as yet no theory for how this modification might come about.

made to unify into one superforce with stunning accuracy. The icing on the

The DGP gravity hypothesis, meanwhile, named after the initials of its

cake was that the lightest superpartner, the neutralino, supplied a ready-

originators, suggests that gravity can leak out from our 4D space-time into a
higher-dimensional bulk, progressively weakening its effect over time and so

made identity for dark matter.

Too good to be true? Probably. If supersymmetric particles exist, they

That also makes it a very hard idea to test.

Fifth forces with attendant quantum particles are also sometimes
proposed to solve problems such as fine-tuning in particle physics,
but there seems precious little evidence for new forces on this scale.
The occasional anomaly does keep physicists hoping, however: most

M-theory could solve fine-tuning and implicitly includes supersymmetry.

of any of them.
But multiverses are in general both a blessing and a curse. The string

otherwise nudged aside.

But as long as aspects of quantum theory such as the measurement
problem remain largely inexplicable, theres always the chance it is the wrong
un, or just an approximation to some deeper theory. Whats truly pulling the

theory or inflationary multiverse, for example, can solve problems like

strings of entanglement, for example? The world embodied by quantum

fine-tuning: other universes exist where all other possible configurations

theory is not the most entangled world out there other, even weirder worlds
exist in theory that have even greater degrees of correlation. Why this

Its extra dimensions are curled up and tiny, explaining why we are not aware of

of matter exist, and our configuration just happens to be one of those

where conditions were ripe for sentient, questioning beings to evolve. But

gravity in five dimensions with a purely quantum theory in four seemed to

such anthropic reasoning absolves us of the responsibility of asking that

indicate it was the right way to unify forces and theories.

most probing of questions, why?. It may be the best we can do, but by

to be at the root of many mysteries, and there are recent hints that it could be

allowing every possibility besides the one youre probing to play out

the warp and weft that holds space and time together. In that case, what is

somewhere in the multiverse, science robs itself of its predictive power.

entanglement? The best we can say is that its some sort of collective

But advances similar to this AdS/CFT correspondence are yet to be made

should have been created at CERNs Large Hadron Collider by now. But aside

recently, aberrations in the expected decay rate of radioactive beryllium

for space-times more like that of our universe, and string theory has yet to make

evidence to back up this hypothesis, however.

from the odd exciting blip that subsequently went away, theres been no sign.

nuclei have been touted as evidence of a whole new dark sector of

a single testable prediction. Most perturbingly, it seems to predict the

Perhaps the superpartners are heavier than we thought, or perhaps we just

particles and forces.

existence of a multiverse of anything up to 10500 different universes (see right).

All that has led some to question whether string theory counts as science.

entangled, and not more?

That might be another fine-tuning issue. But entanglement does seem

information shared between particles.

That highlights a common theme in much cutting-edge physics: that
understanding space-time, and the route to a more unified picture of nature

physicists are facing an uncomfortable thought: nature might not have

Rival approaches do pop up from time to time. But all these theories are far from

generally, lies in treating information not matter and energy as the most

supplied as neat an answer as supersymmetry.

a theory of everything as most people would understand it: one that can also

fundamental thing in the universe and understanding better how it works.

explain, for example, how properties such as consciousness emerge from the
workings of inanimate matter.

Words by Stuart Clark and Richard Webb. Design by Craig Mackie

different. The second is how you get convincing evidence for the existence

them. Breakthroughs such as the discovery in 1995 of a way to link a theory with

producing the illusion of dark energy. Were yet to find any experimental

havent teased their existence from the data yet. But increasingly, particle

The first difficulty is that these multiverses are probably all

Perhaps looking at the universe through information-tinted spectacles

will open us up to blindingly obvious solutions that make the problems we
encounter today melt away.