IMAGINE you possibly can see by means of on a regular basis objects to the stuff they’re product of. If you zoomed in on the arm of a chair, say, you’ll see that it’s product of atoms. Zoom in once more and you’ll see that these atoms comprise subatomic particles known as protons, neutrons and electrons. Zooming additional nonetheless, you’ll see that the protons and neutrons are composed of quarks.
These are the layers of actuality, and that is how physicists perceive the universe: by breaking every part down into its constituent elements, an method referred to as reductionism. As a particle physicist, I grew up on this philosophy. It has introduced physics a good distance – it’s how we constructed our present image of matter and its workings, in spite of everything. But now, with additional progress stalling, I’m satisfied we have to go about issues in another way from right here.
Rather than zooming ever additional inwards, I feel we have to zoom out. In doing so, we may even see that every part there may be, together with such seemingly elementary issues as house and time, fragment out of a unified entire. This may sound like philosophy or mysticism, however it’s actually a direct results of making use of quantum mechanics to the entire cosmos. When you do this, you realise that the universe isn’t basically product of separate elements in any respect, however is as an alternative a single, quantum object.
It is a radical thought, and one we’re simply starting to check experimentally. But whether it is appropriate, it might assist resolve a few of the most puzzling mysteries in physics and upend the approach we take into consideration the …