Murray Gell-Mann: Beauty and truth in physics

Wielding laypeople’s terms and a sense of humor, Nobel Prize winner Murray Gell-Mann drops some knowledge about particle physics, asking questions like, Are elegant equations more likely to be right than inelegant ones? Can the fundamental law, the so-called “theory of everything,” really explain everything? His answers will surprise you.

Is this the theory of everything?

This elegant model by Garrett Lisi may at last reveal the link between gravity and the other fundamental forces of nature. It is based on the Lie Group E8.
Garrett Lisi is an unlikely individual to be staking a claim for a theory of everything. He has no university affiliation and spends [...]