Scientists generally believe that everything happening in nature, from the birth of galaxies, to the hiccups of subatomic particles, obeys the same fundamental laws. An ultimate “theory of everything” that ties these laws together into one elegant package has eluded its pursuers for decades. A study in Friday’s issue of Science may provide a new route toward solving this tantalizing puzzle.
To find out how most anything works, you’ll eventually get to physics if you probe deep enough. (In this spirit, Ernest Rutherford supposedly pronounced, “All science is either physics or stamp collecting.”)
At the heart of modern physics are three basic principles, each of which has its own logic and distinct set of rules. Quantum mechanics describes the behavior of extremely small objects. Albert Einstein’s theory of special relativity deals with very fast objects, and his theory of general relativity typically involves very large ones.
Scientists have managed to blend the first two principles, quantum mechanics and special relativity, in ways that account for some of the most fundamental forces in the universe, such as electromagnetism.
General relativity, however, the only one to explain the gravitational force, has steadfastly resisted efforts at unification. When scientists have tried to tie together quantum mechanics and general relativity, their efforts just produced mathematical nonsense.
Thus, we can’t answer key questions about the universe, such as what ultimately happens to matter inside a black hole, and a theory of everything (also called a “grand unified theory,” or GUT) continues to elude us.
One promising approach to this problem is called superstring theory, in which the universe consists of tiny loops, or strings, vibrating in 10 dimensions. The new Science study proposes an alternative scenario, however, in which the universe is more like the surface of a water droplet — albeit one with some very unusual properties.
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