About the Universe
We should celebrate a totally complete revolution in our understanding of the universe, that took place about 45 years ago or within the last 50 years, that’s been unheralded. You don’t read about it much.
In the early 1960s, there were four forces in nature, electromagnetism, which you know of, and gravity, the two you’re mostly familiar with. There are two more, called the strong force and the weak force. In 1962 or ’63, we understand one, one force in nature. Electromagnetism was the only force we understood as a quantum theory. Quantum mechanics is the theory that governs matter on very small scales and forces. What is remarkable is, within a decade, we understood three of those four forces of nature.
I mean, it was one of the most amazing periods of scientific expansion in understanding the universe, and one of the most beautiful aspects of that is we understood that all of the forces in nature could be understood in terms of a single mathematical formula. They had exactly the same structure mathematically, which is profoundly interesting, but even more interesting perhaps, you know you’ve made a breakthrough in science when two things that seem very, very different suddenly are recognized as being different aspects of the same thing.
Transcription of Prof. Lawrence Krauss
Modica
Looking at this photo of Modica (and remembering my brief glimpse of the city while crossing a nearby bridge), I’m reminded of Berat, Albania, with its flat, front-facing buildings of endless windows. That said, this is most definitely another Baroque city.
Modica is famous for its chocolate, which comes from a traditional Aztec recipe. Cioccolato di Modica can be found throughout the city.
From Adventurous Kate
