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For more than a century physicists have hoped that they were closing in on the Holy Grail of modern science: a unified theory that would make sense of the entire physical world, from the subnuclear realm of quarks and gluons to the very moment of creation of the universe. The End of Physics is a history of the attempts to find such a "theory of everything"; a forceful argument it will never be found; and a warning that the compromises necessary to produce a final theory may well undermine the rules of good science.At the heart of Lindley's story is the rise of the particle physicists and their attempts to reach far out into the cosmos for a unifying theory. Working beyond the grasp of the largest telescopes or the most powerful particle accelerators, and unable to subject their findings and theories to experimental scrutiny, they have moved into a world governed entirely by mathematical and highly speculative theorizing, none of which can be empirically verified. Lindley argues that a theory of everything derived from particle physics will be full of untested--and untestable--assumptions. And if physicists yield to such speculation, the field will retreat from the high ground of science, becoming instead a modern mythology. This would mean the end of physics as we know it.… (more)
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An interesting book that not only does a pretty good job of explaining particle physics and the history of the various theories but also the relationship between mathematics and theory. (I have a a hard time understanding particle physics on even a watered-down,
Lindley points out that modern theoretical particle physics is driven by the desire to find a mathematically elegant theory, that circular reasoning has resulted as mathematicians propose ideas for physicists. Physicists, in turn, reject or accept ideas based on their mathematical elegance. All this goes on with increasingly less experimental verification of theories if for no other reason than that the realm explored by particle physicists has become more expensive and difficult to explore and that some questions – like why does the universe have to possess symmetrical, beautiful mathematic elegance? -- don’t lend themselves to verification or experiment.
On the other hand, as Lindley points out, holding on to elegant theory in spite of experimental evidence to the contrary is sometimes justified. He points out that, at first, Copernican astronomical theory didn’t match experimental observations as well as Ptolemaic astronomy did. However, some scientists kept messing around with it due to its elegance and simplicity – its mathematical beauty – and Kepler’s refinements finally produced a theory that matched observation. So there is historical justification for scientists clinging to a theory despite the evidence, but, as Lindley points out, this can go too far. The tension between the predominance of theory and observation is a central one to physics.