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Modern physics has two stories to tell about our universe. The first states that it is basically made of space-time, a continuous stretchy fabric that has been inflated since time immemorial. Another says that it is basically made of something that is indivisible and you can’t even determine where or when it is.
Both stories are compelling and describe what we are observing with incredible accuracy. The big difference, however, is the scale at which it applies. Albert Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity explains gravity, space and time, and governs the distance between very large objects and the universe. Quantum physics, on the other hand, dominates small, energetic atoms and subatomic particles.
Ultimately, neither story is true. Nowhere is this more evident than in the Big Bang, when all of the universe was compressed to a tiny point. Here we need a single theory that includes the gravitational and quantum realms. “The big question is why are we here,” he says. Toby Wiseman, a theorist at Imperial College London. “Quantum gravity seems to be the only answer.”
Unfortunately, despite decades of research, we still haven’t found the answer. Quantum gravity means the harmony between the continuous and the indivisible, the predictable and the random. I have a lot of ideas, but I can’t fully incorporate them all. “We’re not very good yet when it comes to understanding the beginning of space and time,” says Wiseman.
Most physicists trying to do this start with quantum physics, but quantum field theory is the workhorse. It describes by “quantizing” three of his four forces of nature, the electromagnetic, the strong nuclear force and the weak nuclear force, as the elementary particles that carry the force. that …
