Five Easy Pieces

The five greatest problems in contemporary theoretical physics, according to physicist and writer Lee Smolin:


- Combine general relativity and quantum theory into a single theory that can claim to be the complete theory of nature.

- Resolve the problems in the foundations of quantum mechanics, either by making sense of the theory as it stands or by inventing a new theory that does make sense.

- Determine whether or not the various particles and forces can be unified in a theory that explains them all as manifestations of a single, fundamental entity.

- Explain how the values of the free constants in the standard model of particle physics are chosen in nature.

- Explain dark matter and dark energy. Or, if they don’t exist, determine how and why gravity is modified on large scales. More generally, explain why the constants of the standard model of cosmology, including the dark energy, have the values they do.

(taken from chapter 1 of his book, The Trouble With Physics)


Tomorrow I will explain how each can be solved …