Channel: Cosmology Today™

Category: Entertainment

Tags: weinbergtheory of everythingconsolationbeautyschoonheidernstmachtoeunification theorynewtonunifying theorylaw of naturetrooststevensteven weinbergsymmetryrelativitygravitywim

Description: 1979 Nobel laureate in Physics, Steven Weinberg, says - "I believe that there is a simple theory that governs everything—the four forces we know about, perhaps other forces as well. I'm not sure that's true. It may be that nature is irreducibly messy. I'm sure that we should assume it's not, because otherwise we're never going to find a fundamental theory. But even so, we're not guaranteed that we'll find it. We may not be smart enough. Dogs are not smart enough to understand quantum mechanics. I'm not sure that people are smart enough to understand the whatever-it-is that unifies everything. I think we probably are, because of our ability to link our minds through language, but I'm not certain." I think the greatest obstacle we may run into is the unwillingness of society to keep spending money on sending telescopes into orbit or building large particle accelerators. We may hit a brick wall as society decides that learning the fundamental laws of nature just isn't worth the money. We'll just have to see. Viewpoints on String Theory | Steven Weinberg pbs.org/wgbh/nova/elegant/view-weinberg.html Scientist: Four golden lessons : Article : Nature nature.com/nature/journal/v426/n6965/full/426389a.html Symmetry: A ‘Key to Nature’s Secrets’ nybooks.com/articles/2011/10/27/symmetry-key-natures-secrets Steven Weinberg on Religion and Science law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/conlaw/weinberg.html Dr. Unification: Steven Weinberg on Getting the Forces of Nature Together scientificamerican.com/article/dr-unification