https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PwBADFyjpzE

No doubt quantum mechanics is very counter intuitive. Is it even possible to bring together quantum mechanics and relativity as a single (unified) entity ?
 
In past couple of years I have found that it makes much more sense to study quantum mechanics and relativity (cosmology) simultaneously. More ever, it has been very useful to listen to theoretical physicists as well as experimental physicists simultaneously. It rather awesome to listen to theoretical physicists bring in many rather crazy new ideas about the nature of physical reality and get quickly shot down by experimental physicists. And, it also awesome to watch observations (and claims) of experimental physicists get shot down by other experimental physicists on many instances as it more recently happened rather catastrophically with BICEP2 Experiment in early 2014.

Sometimes It could be useful to listen to pure mathematicians as they do have unique abilities to come up with creative solutions however more often than not many of their mathematical solutions do not seem to be congruent with the reality (or at least the realty we have understood so far). Any wonder String Theory has not gotten anywhere in the last 4 decades.

I have found Princeton theoretical physicist Nima Arkani-Hamed's (among many) explanations to be compelling even if it seems that bringing quantum mechanics and relativity is rather an impossible task in the real world or at least for now.

I know quantum mechanics and cosmology are two big ideas too big to be fully understood in this lifetime however these two big ideas are too intriguing to not make an attempt.

Cosmological Constant - Einstein's even greater nightmare

Before astronomer Edwin Hubble came along and changed the view of universe (and Einstein's), it was widely believed that the universe was static, neither expanding nor contracting. Einstein's theory of general relativity (which is an essentially a theory of gravity), however, did not allow for the universe to be static. Mechanisms of Einstein's theory of gravity would ultimately coalesce all baryonic matter (everything made up of atoms) in the universe into a singularity (black hole) making the notion of static universe untenable.

Cosmological constant was something clever (or so he thought) Einstein himself came up with to allow for static universe to be viable. An anti-gravity or repulsive-gravity like force that would counteract gravity and stop all baryonic matter in the universe ultimately coalescing into a singularity.

Few years later, when astronomer Edwin Hubble discovered that the universe not static but expanding Einstein quickly got rid of his cosmological constant as it was no longer needed to be congruent with Hubble's discovery of expanding universe. Einstein said to have said that cosmological constant was the greatest blunder of his career.

Cosmological constant makes a comeback -
Two independent groups of astronomers, the High-Z Supernova Search Team and Supernova Cosmology Project in late 1990s began making measurements to do far more accurate measurements of Hubble's discovery of expanding universe.

They found that the universe was not only expanding, it was expanding at ever accelerating pace. Repulsive-gravity or an anti-gravity like force very similar to cosmological constant which Einstein had referred to as his greatest blunder was at work. These days, it is referred simply as Dark Energy. According to predictions it would accelerate the expansion of the universe to a pace faster than speed of light ripping apart galaxies, stars, planets, elements, even atoms and sub-atomic particles to oblivion.

Team leaders of The High-Z Supernova Search Team and Supernova Cosmology Project were awarded Nobel Prize in physics for 2011.


Is the Universe Fine-Tuned for Life ?