May 18, 2004

Mystery

Brian Greene’s new book, “The Fabric of the Cosmos,” (Knopf), describes the three parts of physics needed for making the story of cosmogony and cosmology understandable: 1) The second law of thermodynamics about order slipping always into chaos with only a few puzzling exceptions, 2) Einstein’s general theory of relativity which “writes the tune to which the universe dances,” and 3) quantum mechanics, about as impractical a practical idea as anybody ever came up with.

Reconciling these three into one Theory of Everything, a task based on the conviction that they simply must be and are, indeed, somehow reconcilable, is what leaves scientists totally frustrated, no matter how hard they try.

There are now several mathematically sophisticated and wildly imaginative proposals to pull this off, but they all face a fundamental defect. There’s no way to test them by comparison, and this kind of uniqueness, ie, “nature has no choice,” is anathema in this business. So guess what? Absent a lab routine, scientists are now pointing to descriptions like “beauty” and “elegance” as a way out.

Three-in-one? Beauty? Elegance? Mystery? Now there’s a novel idea.

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