Editorial: Physics’ greatest endeavour is grinding to a halt

“WE DON’T know what we are talking about.” That was Nobel laureate David Gross at the 23rd Solvay Conference in Physics in Brussels, Belgium, during his concluding remarks on Saturday. He was referring to string theory – the attempt to unify the otherwise incompatible theories of relativity and quantum mechanics to provide a theory of everything.

The state of physics today is like it was when we were mystified by radioactivity

Gross – who received a Nobel for his work on the strong nuclear force, bringing physics closer to a theory of …