Theoretical physicists have spent nearly a century trying to reconcile a unified physical theory of our universe out of quantum mechanics and general relativity.
The problem they face is that both prevailing theories work incredibly well at describing our world, and have both held up under repeated experimentation.
But the two might as well be describing two entirely different realities that never actually intersect.
General relativity can mathematically describe a leaf falling from a tree, the orbits of moons and planets, even the formation of galaxies, but is not much use when trying to predict the motion of an electron.
Quantum mechanics, meanwhile appears to violate nearly everything we know about the universe — that matter can only be in one place at any given time, that something can only be in one state at a time, or that observing something is not the same thing as interacting with it — but which nonetheless gives us the mathematical tools we need to create lasers, quantum computers, and many other modern technologies.
Recently, though, an interesting proposal about a thorny paradox involving black holes, ER = EPR, has been causing quite a stir among physicists, and it's easy to see why. This simple equation might be the wormhole we've been looking for that bridges the two seemingly irreconcilable theories.
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