Text Box: And now, the long-awaited... "Theory of Everything" was published in New York on 1 March 1999. A personal presentation of this research work was also made at the American Physical Society meeting in Washington DC on 30 April 2001. Please do not prejudge the work by its ‘audacious’ title, but kindly defer your judgment at least until after a cursory read of these web pages. In the book is propounded the ultimate paradigm incorporating the theory of relativity and quantum mechanics. Whoa! Hold your horses! Let not words such as these scare you anymore. The purpose of the book is also to put common sense back into the understanding of science with explanations based on the everyday experiences of housewives and househusbands. ‘Relativity’ shall thus, once again, correspond to the space and time we are used to in our daily lives, and to statements like: If John walks down the road at 3 mph and Jane walks at 2 mph toward John, the two will be approaching each other at 3 + 2 = 5 mph. John may now well be a particle of light energy moving at velocity c, and Jane an experimenter measuring the velocities. The above logic of velocity addition, at base, does not change now! In a similar manner, ‘quantum mechanics’ has now become the mechanics of marbles children play; the only difference being the marbles here are perfectly elastic. There is no reason now why Jane and John cannot come in and join these kids in the playing field for a game of marbles. True, an insurmountable wall existed around the field for a long time. That wall, however, has come tumbling down. There is now that total unification across the land of physics! As you may know, Albert Einstein initiated this noble quest for a unifying theory, dubbed the “theory of everything” by scientists today. The great man of science spent about 30 years of his life for a conceptual breakthrough toward this singular and all-embracing theory, until his death in 1955. He had not succeeded. The reason for the failure is now very simple. About 500 years ago, people thought the Earth was flat. (Mrs. Columbus may well have been praying: "Your namesake, Chris, has left on an awful voyage, Lord. Let not that stupid boy fall off the edge of the Earth.") They also thought the Earth to be the center of the universe. Scientists of the time conceived the Sun and all the other celestial bodies to orbit a fixed Earth. (And Mrs. Copernicus: "Lord, save that foolish boy of mine from the wrath of those equally bull-headed peers and their ‘all-enlightening’ stake.") The reason: THERE JUST WERE NOT ENOUGH EMPIRICAL DATA AT THE TIME TO BUILD A BETTER MODEL OF THE UNIVERSE. In a like manner, there just were not enough empirical data at the time of Einstein to build that final and complete theory of nature. Moreover, from the submicroscopic world of atoms and superconducting electrons to the macroscopic world of quasars and migrating galaxy superclusters, many phenomena were not even known then to exist. But, today, the situation is very different. Experimental and observational data have increased by leaps and bounds especially over the past few decades – or even years. From the breadth of terrestrial laboratories to depth of space, an unprecedented wealth of information has streamed in through our instruments. It was now a matter of just piecing together the reservoir of hard data patiently (without being drowned in it complacently). AND, LO! THE THEORY – THE LONG-SOUGHT HOLY GRAIL OF SCIENCE – VIRTUALLY TRANSPIRES ITSELF. The exercise of completing the great jigsaw puzzle of the universe is what is described in the book. As it turns out, not only does the theory unify totally, but, as envisioned by scientists and philosophers over the years, it also does simplify utterly: Our understanding of the atomic nucleus, the gravitational effect or any other physical phenomenon needs no longer to be in the abstract! Thus, what is basically accorded in the book is a second look at the nature of things unbridled by modern physics. In the light of the overwhelming new data since the time of Einstein, the whole of our observable universe is now seen literally as a voidless single medium – AND THE WAY TO UNIFICATION IN PHYSICS. In this vibrant medium, or ‘ether’, speed-c particles constitute the evaporated state and sub-c particles the condensed form; the space and time of the cosmic microwave background radiation serving respectively as absolute space and absolute time to reference c. And, without hocus-pocus, all of physics becomes classical mechanical in scope and high-school stuff in comprehension. It is thus the most revealing work in physics, the simplicity and completeness of which should also find converts even among the most diehard skeptics of our times. Therefore, in all sincerity, there is nothing at all in the book that is abstract (like the four-dimensional spacetime of general relativity – where you can slip into the past and cause the death of your own father in his infancy!); ad hoc (like space contraction and time dilation in special relativity theory – where you can become years younger than your twin brother); or contrived (like the elimination of infinities in renormalization theory – where you can conveniently ignore quantities, not because they are very small, but because they are infinitely large and you do not want them as they only mess up an otherwise beautiful theory!). Nevertheless, should even a single point in its presentation fail to convince you – do pull me up for clarification. Sensationalism was probably the main cause for the wide publicity, interest, and eventual accommodation of Einstein’s theory of relativity when there was nothing better on the horizon for academics to pursue. (The twenty-or-so-dimensional superstring theory is probably riding such a crest now – with great coverage also by The New York Times!) We see the after effects of this misadventure only too plainly now. Instead of producing answers to original questions, physics research is churning out only more new questions (and more new string theories!) with demand and clamor for more new funding. It is not only an unjustifiable cost to taxpayers but also a wasteful drain on human resources. (We shall discount here the positive contributions that these theories do make – to Hollywood; many of us would be loath to the sun ever setting on movies like Star Trek and Back to the Future.) The simple model presented here in the new work, though, should bring about an early resolution to this crisis now degrading science. Finally, there are over a dozen predictions in the book for the scientific community to test out with present-day instruments and in existing facilities. Journal reports of their findings, of course, would be most welcome – as these would only go to increasingly validate the theory. There is also material here in abundance – from the quark to the quasar, and even beyond – for high-school essays and doctorate theses alike. Truly great discoveries, they say, often appear obvious in hindsight. I am confident you will find the renewed insights here into the nature of things – to be so. Happy new atomic and cosmic trails!
Text Box: There is a paradox at the heart of present-day physics that is not often remarked upon. It goes as follows. There is tremendous excitement among particle physicists, who are trying feverishly to develop a unified theory of all interactions and particles, and believe they are getting closer and closer to that goal. But the reality is that physics is becoming more and more fragmented. The unity that has been a great underlying theme in the development of physics is sharply contrasted with what is happening to the subject in practice. No ultimate truth in grand unification, George Ellis (Mathematics Department, University of Cape Town, South Africa), Nature,7 October 1999; p 527
THE UNIFICATION OF PHYSICS ILLUSTRATIONS
A Synopsis The Cosmos The Spin
ADDENDA The Cosmological Redshift The Neutrino
Two-Slit Tests The Galaxy Nuclear Reactions
NASA Tests Gravity The Sun
KamLAND Test Anti-Gravity The Pulsar
UCLA Test Relativity Superconductivity
Q and A Mass-Energy Fusion Energy
 Eugene Sittampalam
 31 January 2008