{"id":2394,"date":"2011-05-30T01:00:46","date_gmt":"2011-05-30T05:00:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/info-libraries.mit.edu\/150books\/?p=2394"},"modified":"2023-07-12T16:18:39","modified_gmt":"2023-07-12T16:18:39","slug":"2004","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/libraries.mit.edu\/150books\/2011\/05\/30\/2004\/","title":{"rendered":"Year 144 – 2004: Universe on a T-Shirt: The Quest for the Theory of Everything by Dan Falk"},"content":{"rendered":"

Published: New York, 2004\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The theory of everything<\/em> \u2013 not to be confused with unified field theory, which is related but different \u2013 has been the Holy Grail of theoretical physics for centuries. The successful theory would explain all physical phenomena in the universe, making it possible, in theory, to predict the outcome of any experiment. \u201cAnd while it will likely be expressed through abstract mathematics,\u201d Dan Falk suggests, \u201cthe ideas at the heart of the theory may turn out to be extremely simple \u2013 so simple, in fact, that the essence of the theory can be written on a T-shirt.\u201d<\/p>\n

Falk\u2019s popular account of the Theory of Everything, which won two awards after its original publication in Canada in 2002, explores both the theory\u2019s history and its frontiers. Beginning with Thales and the science of ancient Greece, Falk traces relevant scientific progress through the Middle Ages, touches on Galileo and Newton, Einstein and Bohr, and brings us around to today\u2019s theorists and the concept of string theory<\/em> \u2013 the current frontrunner for the Theory of Everything.<\/p>\n

\u201cString theorists aren\u2019t uncorking the champagne just yet, however,\u201d Falk notes.<\/p>\n

The biggest problem is that the theory describes how particles and forces behave at enormously high energies. \u00a0Even the largest particle accelerators are about a billion billion times too weak to probe string effects by any direct experiment \u2026 To investigate strings directly, in fact, would require an accelerator roughly the size of the solar system.\"\"<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

While a viable theory seems out of reach for now, it should come as no surprise that members of MIT\u2019s faculty have contributed to the pursuit of this scientific grail. And if someone here at the Institute were to articulate such a theory, making what might well be the greatest scientific discovery of all time, we certainly wouldn’t be opposed to uncorking that champagne.<\/p>\n

If we\u2019re lucky, it might happen next year, when Dan Falk will be a visiting Knight Fellow<\/a> at MIT.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Find it in the library<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Published: New York, 2004 The theory of everything \u2013 not to be confused with unified field theory, which is related but different \u2013 has been the Holy Grail of theoretical physics for centuries. The successful theory would explain all physical phenomena in the universe, making it possible, in theory, to predict the outcome of any experiment. \u201cAnd while it will likely be expressed through abstract mathematics,\u201d Dan Falk suggests, \u201cthe ideas at the heart of the theory may turn out to be extremely simple \u2013 so simple, in fact, that the essence of the theory can be written on a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":false,"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2394","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-all-years"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/libraries.mit.edu\/150books\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2394","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/libraries.mit.edu\/150books\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/libraries.mit.edu\/150books\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libraries.mit.edu\/150books\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libraries.mit.edu\/150books\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2394"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/libraries.mit.edu\/150books\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2394\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4337,"href":"https:\/\/libraries.mit.edu\/150books\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2394\/revisions\/4337"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/libraries.mit.edu\/150books\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2394"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libraries.mit.edu\/150books\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2394"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libraries.mit.edu\/150books\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2394"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}