Laid-Back Surfer Dude May Be Next Einstein

Fox News ^ | November 19, 2007

[Zakeet]

A surfer dude with no fixed address may be this century's Einstein.

A. Garrett Lisi, a physicist who divides his time between surfing in Maui and teaching snowboarding in Lake Tahoe, has come up with what may be the Grand Unified Theory.

That's the "holy grail" of physics that scientists have been searching for ever since Albert Einstein presented his General Theory of Relativity nearly 100 years ago.

Even more remarkable is that Lisi, who has a Ph.D. but no permanent university affiliation, solves the problem without resorting to exotic dimensions, string theory or exceptionally complex mathematics.

A successful Grand Unified Theory would use a series of equations to show how the four fundamental forces of nature — gravity, electromagnetism and the strong and weak nuclear forces — relate to each other.

Electromagnetism and the weak nuclear force, which controls radioactivity, were linked more than 30 years ago, and some progress has been made with linking them to the strong nuclear force, which binds protons together in the atomic nucleus.

But gravity has always been an outlier. Not only have all attempts to link gravity to the other three forces failed, but physicists still can't agree on what gravity actually is or how it works.

Lisi solves this by using the E8 lattice, an eight-dimensional structure visualized earlier this year in a widely circulated paper.

[Zakeet]

"The moment this happened my brain exploded with the
implications and the beauty of the thing," Lisi tells New
Scientist magazine. "I thought: 'Holy crap, that's it!'"

[agere_contra]

“And then a tree grew out of my neck”

[torchthemummy]

I’ll get back to you all once I completely understand the E=MC2 thing.

[edcoil]

F=MA

[DManA]

It’s not a theory of everything unless it can explain women.

[Hunterite]

“I’ll get back to you all once I completely understand the E=MC2 thing.”

Energy = Mass * Number

Number = big

[Hunterite]

“And then a tree grew out of my neck”

lol

[Jacquerie]

Can this guy tell us the speed of gravity?

[OSHA]

42

[em2vn]

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1925926/posts

[cajungirl]

He gives slacker surfer/boarder dudes a good name. I want him for a young relative’s husband.

[yoe]

It is exciting even if you can't understand it *~*

Look at this (what is about)

[vladimir998]

Ah, yes. 42. The meaning of life.

[racnpartsales4u]

He can call it “Spiccoli’s theory of relativity” If Im here and your here then its “Our time”

[fhayek]

A Babel fish wispered that answer in my ear. Who knew?

[MSF BU]

It sounds as though this character was created by Dean Koontz.

[RobFromGa]

watching that video makes it seem likely that in addition to surfing, there are also illegal drugs involved in this discovery.

[ReignOfError]

Shoot, I can do that. 32ft^sec^sec. Gallileo had that one more or less pegged. Of course, that’s only on Earth.

Relativity came from a patent clerk. Why couldn’t the first plausible GUT (Grand Unification Theory) come from a surfer? A surfer with an earned doctorate in the field. Newton found gravity while napping under an apple tree. Why couldn’t Lisi have his eureka moment while riding a wave?

I’m not signing on to this, but it’s an interesting development, one that I plan to keep watching.

[Red Badger]

but physicists still can't agree on what gravity actually is or how it works.

Gravity is a hole in space.............

[Red Badger]

Newton found gravity while napping under an apple tree

I heard he actually fell out of the apple tree.............

[MaryFromMichigan]

The moment this happened my brain exploded with the implications and the beauty of the thing," Lisi tells New Scientist magazine. "I thought: 'Holy crap, that's it!

I've had moments like that.
I call it having an intellectual orgasm.
:)

[edcoil]

Nope, its when the drugs kick in.

[Erasmus]

Can this guy tell us the speed of gravity?

That (among many ther things, of course) would be required of any T.O.E. Or, alternatively, an explanation of why the question does not make sense.

[Jacquerie]

Psst. I asked for the speed of gravity, not acceleration due to earth’s gravity.

If a mass is created at the far side of the galaxy, how long does it take for the gravity force between that body an our earth to interact? Is is faster or slower than the speed of light?

If I am correctly informed, Hawking hasn’t figured this one out.

[jonrick46]

This exciting breakthrough theory of creation is what I have been waiting years to see. Wow!

[Jacquerie]

See #24. The concept is not difficult.

[Chipper]

Interesting. I'm reading Einstein currently. Bookmarked for later reading.

[maine-iac7]

Can this guy tell us the speed of gravity?

probably he's found anti-gravity - a long lost secret

[fhayek]

As I understand it, there is a gravitational force between every particle of mass in the universe. How the mass is created at the far side of the universe puzzles me, but, there wouldn’t be a speed of gravity. The attraction of gravity has always existed, since creation itself.

[Lord_Calvinus]

Fascinating!

[maine-iac7]

Look at this...

The video is mind blowing - does anyone want to take bets on how long it takes to try to debunk/bury this because it has an "inconvenient base pattern"?

Is this another inconvenient case of science and theology coming together?

[Tallguy]

[Jacquerie]

Mass can be created from energy. E=MC^2. Think big bang.

[Petronski]

E=MC2

Split the atom and go boom.

[maine-iac7]

a Ph.D. but no permanent university affiliation

The secret to his success - no controls

[shield]

bfl

[HEY4QDEMS]

I was once working on a grand unifying theory but then I ran out of beer .......

[mad puppy]

And a white line came out of my butt.

That was funny. Nice one.

[ichabod1]

Dood. I was doin’a 1080 on the half pipe when it hit me.

[infidel29]

"The moment this happened my brain exploded with the implications and the beauty of the thing," Lisi tells New Scientist magazine. "I thought: 'Holy crap, that's it!'"

Then he added, "all we are is dust in the wind, dude."

[dbacks]

As a physicist, I have always thought the unification theory wouldn’t be any more complex than E=MC^2. God’s scheme wan’t meant to be hard to express, just hard to rationalize.

[Malacoda]

I thought about “Ratty,” from “They Thirst,” too. (Maybe that was McCammon.)

[macamadamia]

The “theory of everything” reminds me of “the set of all sets”.....things that fog up my mind’s windshield.

[OSHA]

Archimedes: Eureka!
Newton: Ouch!
Bell: Watson? Is that you? Hello? Speak up! Is anyone there? Is this thing on?
Einstein: I am tinking dat i may be onto somtink here vit de squared thingie.
Lisi: Whoa dude! Sweeeeeeet!

[Defiant]

I just watched the youtube video, and there is no way a human brain came up with that. I bow to Ruxnar, the surfing alien.

[Defiant]

It's easy. We are not connected by gravity to some object far, far away. We are connected by gravity to something that is nearby. And it is connected to us, and things on the other side of us. And those things are connected to nearby objects. And on and on, all the way to the far side of the universe.

At least, that's what I can come up with on 30 seconds pondering.

Actually, I haven't a clue--but you could tell that, couldn't you?

[Defiant]

As long as you are asking questions, I have some: How did they fit everything in the entire universe into a tiny pinpoint before the big bang? What was outside the pinpoint? And how does that turtle manage to keep the entire world on his back?

[Hunterite]

” Can this guy tell us the speed of gravity?”

The speed of gravity is exactly the speed of light.

[Hunterite]

“It’s easy. We are not connected by gravity to some object far, far away. We are connected by gravity to something that is nearby. And it is connected to us, and things on the other side of us. And those things are connected to nearby objects. And on and on, all the way to the far side of the universe.

At least, that’s what I can come up with on 30 seconds pondering.”

Your guess is as good as anyones. In fact that is what some astrophysicist have postulated, that gravity drops off at galactic distances. Hey the strong nuclear force does it, why not.

This is all crazy and nuts. I hate modern physics.

[freekitty]

Me too. I have no clue.