An impoverished surfer has drawn up a new theory of the universe, seen by some as the Holy Grail of physics, which has received rave reviews from scientists.

Garrett Lisi, 39, has a doctorate but no university affiliation and spends most of the year surfing in Hawaii, where he has also been a hiking guide and bridge builder (when he slept in a jungle yurt).


In winter, he heads to the mountains near Lake Tahoe, Nevada, where he snowboards. "Being poor sucks," Lisi says. "It's hard to figure out the secrets of the universe when you're trying to figure out where you and your girlfriend are going to sleep next month."

Despite this unusual career path, his proposal is remarkable because, by the arcane standards of particle physics, it does not require highly complex mathematics.

Even better, it does not require more than one dimension of time and three of space, when some rival theories need ten or even more spatial dimensions and other bizarre concepts. And it may even be possible to test his theory, which predicts a host of new particles, perhaps even using the new Large Hadron Collider atom smasher that will go into action near Geneva next year.

Although the work of 39 year old Garrett Lisi still has a way to go to convince the establishment, let alone match the achievements of Albert Einstein, the two do have one thing in common: Einstein also began his great adventure in theoretical physics while outside the mainstream scientific establishment, working as a patent officer, though failed to achieve the Holy Grail, an overarching explanation to unite all the particles and forces of the cosmos.

Now Lisi, currently in Nevada, has come up with a proposal to do this. Lee Smolin at the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, describes Lisi's work as "fabulous". "It is one of the most compelling unification models I've seen in many, many years," he says.

"Although he cultivates a bit of a surfer-guy image its clear he has put enormous effort and time into working the complexities of this structure out over several years," Prof Smolin tells The Telegraph.

"Some incredibly beautiful stuff falls out of Lisi's theory," adds David Ritz Finkelstein at the Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta. "This must be more than coincidence and he really is touching on something profound."

This is some awesome stuff!!!

here's another: http://www.youtube.com/w...GK1s&feature=related

For you physics buffs - I really enjoyed reading about this guy. Part surfer, part theoretical physicist, all genius. I tell you, the visual representation of the E8 mathematical object looks familiar for some reason I swear I've seen that on high doses of shrooms.

Nassim Haremen was the first to formulate a unified field theory based upon sacred geometry.

Director of Research Nassim Haramein and scientists at the Resonance Project Foundation have found a new solution to Einstein’s field equations which incorporates torque and Coriolis effects. Furthermore, calculations were rendered to describe the collective and coherent behavior of the plasma dynamics of ergospheres orbiting the event horizons of black holes demanding a highly structured polarized vacuum, resulting in an alternative view of black holes where the exterior white hole portion surrounds the interior black hole singularity.

From these calculations, a new paper has recently been released entitled Scale Unification – A Universal Scaling Law For Organized Matter, which describes our universe as embedded white hole / black hole or white / black “whole” structures from universal size to atomic and subatomic scales.

Instead of seeing ourselves as separate from everything around us, this view allows us to recognize that we are embedded in a fractal feedback dynamic that intrinsically connects all things via the medium of a vacuum structure of infinite potential.

Very nice, I posted this same thing about a year ago. Great talk, and interesting perspective.



High doses of shrooms, high doses of LSD...I even see it sometimes on Aya...I've had the E8 as by screen background for a while now

I can't find a source to back me up right now, but I remember reading not too long ago that mathematicians found some serious mathematical flaws with Lisi's theory.


Edit:

Here's one article, there are many others:

Surfer’s ‘everything theory’ wipes out

Very nice, I posted this same thing about a year ago. Great talk, and interesting perspective.



High doses of shrooms, high doses of LSD...I even see it sometimes on Aya...I've had the E8 as by screen background for a while now

It has ignited a firestorm of debate over the last few years, and the word is still out.

...

the mathematical model seems to describe the macro
but it falls aparts at the subatomic level, in the face of the uncertainty principle.
hell, even rigorous math can't precisely describe what's going on at that level

But don't all mathmatical models break down at the subatomic level?

I don’t think the problem was with the accuracy or predictive value of his model. I think the problem was a mathematical error.

Something like saying that x*x = x^3 (of course, a much more complicated error, but you get the idea).