Of Atoms, Quanta, Strings and Branes; Just How Weird Can the Universe Really Be?

Abstract

Every schoolchild knows about Isaac Newton, the great seventeenth century physicist whose theory of universal gravitation made it possible to calculate everything from the motions of the planets to the trajectories of rockets … or falling apples according to the popular story. But Newtonian physics had an even wider effect on scientific thought. His model of the universe was that of a great mechanism; a machine functioning according to strictly deterministic laws with the precision of clockwork. The Newtonian universe was, in short, a clockwork cosmos. What is now referred to as classical physics grew out of this conception of nature. Basically, physicists of the post-Newtonian era saw themselves as investigating the laws by which this great clockwork mechanism operated and refining them to ever greater precision.