How a Surfer Dude Stunned the World of Science With the 'Theory of Everything'

How a Surfer Dude Stunned the World of Science With the

www.dailygalaxy.com

A laid-back surfer has just drawn up a new theory of the universe that is blowing the establishment’s socks off. His theory is seen by some as the “Holy Grail of physics”, and is earning rave reviews from distinguished scientists.

(visit the link for the full news article)



[edit on 5-2-2009 by Godhood]

A very interesting article for some beach bum he sure has a good head on his shoulders thought it was a good read and a very interesting theory there even comparing him to Albert Einstein at one point but i am not sure hes all that yet but it seems he knows what hes talking about. Especially when some call his theory the Holy Grail of physics those are strong comments if you ask me.

www.dailygalaxy.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

What was the theory

reply to post by Kyoto111


from the article:

The inspiration behind Lisi's model is something you can actually see. It’s the most elegant and intricate shape known to mathematics, called E8 – an eight-dimensional mathematical pattern with 248 points first found in 1887. The pattern was only fully understood by mathematicians this year after workings, that, if written out in tiny print, would cover an area the size of Manhattan.

E8 encapsulates the symmetries of a geometric object that is 57-dimensional and is itself is 248-dimensional. Lisi said, "I think our universe is this beautiful shape."

What makes E8 so exciting is that Nature also seems to have embedded it at the heart of many bits of physics. One interpretation of why we have such a quirky list of fundamental particles is because they all result from different facets of the strange symmetries of E8.

Lisi's breakthrough came when he noticed that some of the equations describing E8's structure matched his own. "My brain exploded with the implications and the beauty of the thing," he tells New Scientist. "I thought: 'Holy crap, that's it!'"

What Lisi had realized was that he could find a way to place the various elementary particles and forces on E8's 248 points. What remained were 20 gaps, which he filled with notional particles, for example those that some physicists predict to be associated with gravity.

I have just read it and it makes absolutely no sense to me whatsoever.

No suprise there though

edit to remove external source.

[edit on 5/2/09 by cropmuncher]

Originally posted by Kyoto111
What was the theory

Heres a link to the source material:

arxiv.org...

I'm still reading it, so will try to sum it up later.

Yeah, he's a surfer dude, but one with a doctorate in physics.

here's the abstract:

Abstract: All felds of the standard model and gravity are unified as an E8 principal bundle connection. A non-compact real form of the E8 Lie algebra has G2 and F4 subalgebras which break down to strong su(3), electroweak su(2) x u(1), gravitational so(3,1), the frame-Higgs, and three generations of fermions related by triality. The interactions and dynamics of these 1-form and Grassmann valued parts of an E8 superconnection are described by the curvature and action over a four dimensional base manifold.

The summing up could take awhile, lol...31 pages of this.

[edit on 5-2-2009 by apacheman]

[edit on 5-2-2009 by apacheman]

Originally posted by Kyoto111
What was the theory

There's a wiki page for it already.

Wikipedia

But if you want the exact details, try to read his theory directly... otherwise you're just getting a regurgitated version of it from a wiki writer.



[edit on 5-2-2009 by johnsky]

reply to post by apacheman


Found that also but you just beat me to posting the link thanks

The greatest answers are in the last place you'll ever look for them.

If this fella is right, the missing pieces, could possible be recreated, by using the empty points as a reverse guide, by using the shapes of the points of E8, there would be all the occupied points to find a guide, IMO, using that could they construct a particle blueprint from that?

Or am I totally brain dead from trying to understand what Lisi has theorised what the Universe is made from? or should I say the shape of the Universe, or Both?

Clearly, the guy is not a beach bum, at all, and really a very intelligent PhD who's been making a living anyway he can while he works out the details of his theory, the way that Einstein made his living writing abstracts for the patent office, because academia thought he was a shiftless dreamer.

This emphasis on his hobby makes me wonder, as does the original contention that the theory only needs the well known four dimensions, including time, and then later seems to require hundreds.

Of course, I'm not qualified to read the theory and make judgements regarding its validity. I can only hope that we really are on the verge of answering some of the most vexing questions about the universe and that some little guy working outside the mainstream is the one to do it.

I like underdogs.

[edit on 2009/2/5 by GradyPhilpott]

Here's a good video explaining his theories...

VIDEO LINK

OK, summation:

He unifies general relativity and quantum mechanics by treating them as different faces of a collapseable Rubik's cube, aligning particle forces through rotations until he could see and eliminate the extraneous math constructs getting in the way of clarity.

Sweet. Elegant. Simple. Predictive and testable.

Wow.

I'm strictly armchair physicist and my higher math sucks bigtime, but what I followed feels right.

Im-pressive.

Wow.

video link:

video.google.com... =UTF-8&sa=N&tab=iv#

I read what he said and all I have to say is whooooooooooooooooooooooosh!

Physics is definitely not my playing field, glad someone else is working it out! lol

This is very interesting (and a topic that I like but for which I do not have enough knowledge to completely understand), but I don't think it should be in the "Breaking Alternative News" forum, considering that this is from November 2007.

Maybe a mod will move it to a more suitable place, like "Science & Technology"

Somebody thats smart please help me out

If his theory works and is proved correct wouldn't this prove or disprove dark mater or dark energy? It should also help us find any particles that we currently don't know about.

Many more ideas and questions after reading this but I will start here.

I tried to read the 30 page pdf but it was way over my head. This is why I went into computers. But if it is so simple, why is it 30 pages? Can he break it down to something like E=MC^2. Or did I miss it in there. How is it the formula of everything for the layman

This guy is great! I certainly don't understand all the concepts here, but what I do understand seems to be simple and elegant, just as the real deal should be.

Totally blown away by this!

Why hasn't this been more widely publicized? It's been around for a while now!

Good find OP - S&Fd!

I remember this from a while back, it's nice to see he's getting more attention, and I never saw his arxiv paper before, thanks for that. Here's the article I read on him.

www.timesonline.co.uk...

reply to post by azzllin


Nope, you're not braindead.

Yes, that's what's so great about it.

And it gives a way to approach dark matter/energy. I can sort of see the reflections of understandings....just glimmers, but this will be a very useful model to work with. But more physics-oriented people than me will have to puzzle that out.