269
project, had created artificial life by
planning its DNA on his computer.
In Scotland, after many setbacks,
Ian Wilmut and colleagues had
succeeded in cloning a sheep.New particles
In physics, the strangeness of
quantum mechanics was further
explored by American Richard
Feynman and others, who
explained quantum interactions
in terms of exchange of “virtual”
particles. Paul Dirac had correctly
predicted the existence of
antimatter in the 1930s, and
in subsequent decades, more
new subatomic particles emerged
from the collisions of ever more
powerful particle colliders. From
this menagerie of exotic particles,
the standard model of particle
physics emerged, arranging thefundamental particles of nature
according to their properties.
Not all physicists were convinced,
but the power of the standard
model received a huge boost in
2012 when the Higgs boson it
had predicted was detected by
CERN’s Large Hadron Collider.
Meanwhile, the search for
a “theory of everything”—a
theory that would unite all four
fundamental forces of nature
(gravity, electromagnetism, and
the strong and weak nuclear
forces)—took many new directions.
American Sheldon Glashow
united electromagnetism with
the weak nuclear force into one
“electroweak” theory, while
string theory attempted to unite
every theory of physics into one
by proposing the existence of six
hidden dimensions in addition tothe three of space and one of
time. American physicist Hugh
Everett III suggested that there
may be a mathematical basis for
the existence of more than one
universe. Everett’s theory of a
constantly splitting multiverse
was at first ignored, but has gained
supporters over the last few years.Future directions
Deep puzzles remain to be solved,
including an elusive theory that
would unite quantum mechanics
with general relativity. But
tantalizing possibilities are also
opening up, including a potential
revolution in computing courtesy
of the quantum mechanical qubit.
It is probable that new problems we
cannot even imagine will emerge.
If the history of science is a guide,
we should expect the unexpected. ■FUNDAMENTAL BUILDING BLOCKS
1964
1964
1967 1980 2010
1974 1985 2012
Peter Higgs suggests
that there is a
fundamental particle
responsible for mass.
Murray Gell-Mann puts
forward the idea of
quarks, leading to the
standard model of
particle physics.Lynn Margulis
shocks her colleagues
with the idea of
endosymbiosis, in
which whole organisms
are absorbed by others.Yuri Manin suggests
the idea of quantum
computing.Craig Venter claims
to be able to design
synthetic
life forms.Stephen Hawking
shows that black holes
emit low-level
radiation.Michael Syvanen says
that genes can move
from one species
to another.The Higgs boson is
detected by CERN.