The world’s most influential physicist can’t prove a thing, says robert matthews
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It is hardly the most inspiring climax to Einstein Year. A century after his celebrated discoveries, one of his intellectual heirs has admitted: "We don't know what we are talking about."
The Nobel Prize-winning American physicist David Gross 'fessed up last week at a meeting of some of the world's most brilliant theorists. They were supposed to be discussing progress towards Einstein's goal of unifying the cosmic and sub-atomic worlds. But then Prof Gross declared he's not sure they're even on the right track.
Most of us couldn't tell if there was a track in the first place. The quest for a "Theory of Everything" (ToE) involves some of the most complex ideas ever conceived: quantum gravity, super-symmetry and multi-dimensional space-time. Prof Gross seems worried that "superstrings" - invented to
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| This frightening loss of contact between physicists and reality is personified by Prof Lisa Randall |
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explain cosmic forces and particles - might not be up to the job. What bothers far more scientists is the way the enterprise has disappeared up its own black hole.
For over 20 years, whole battalions of theorists have written thousands of papers claiming to have made some or other advance towards a ToE. And yet not one has ever been confirmed by experiment.
This frightening loss of contact between physicists and reality is personified by Prof Lisa Randall, a ToE expert at Harvard. She is currently the most influential physicist in the world, having been cited in 10,000 papers in the last five years. Yet not one of her most celebrated "discoveries" has come close to being confirmed. They have, however, ensured the continued employment of hundreds of colleagues.
The world's media are about to turn the pulchritudinous Prof Randall into the next Stephen Hawking. Before they get too carried away, perhaps they should run her discoveries by Prof Gross. 
FIRST POSTED DECEMBER 14
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