According to German physicist and science writer Alexander Unzicker, most people in the global physics community are fundamentally misguided by their understanding of their own branch of science.
“Modern physics is so different from the science that stood for humanity’s greatest achievements 100 years ago,” Unzicker says. “Today’s scientists have highly developed technical skills and almost unlimited resources, but they lack Albert Einstein’s deep reflections on the laws of nature, his passion and his intellectual honesty.”
Unzicker argues that modern physics is on the wrong track, and he likens it to medieval astronomy. Most people may have trouble understanding all the reasons for skepticism about today’s physics, but Unzicker says one thing should be clear: we may be stunting our progress as a species by missing the mark on physics.
“As a taxpayer, you might be interested to know whether the billions of dollars spent on real or alleged fundamental research is well invested,” he says. “Yet, the problem is a more basic one. Our understanding of the laws of nature will decisively contribute to how our civilization will be able to adapt to a cosmos that is rather hostile to life.”
Unzicker briefly reviews some points about today’s state of physics and a few areas wherein perhaps physicists are wrong about physics.
Good physics is simple
Contemporary physics, in contrast, is complicated. Unzicker says this state is reflected by many so-called “free parameters,” unjustified numbers invented for no other purpose than to fit the data. He says it’s a physicist’s business to not only describe the observations but also to adequately understand them.
Einstein would have disliked the current standard model of cosmology
Einstein explicitly stated that a physical theory has poor chances of being true unless it’s very simple. It’s not that he preferred simplicity for simplicity’s sake, Unzicker says. Rather, history provides evidence that correct theories are simple. All revolutions in physics are simplified — that is, they got rid of unexplained numbers.
Einstein’s example is not followed today
The man who revolutionized physics had a unique way of thinking. He endured a sincere struggle to understand the laws of nature, and Unzicker says his passionate search for truth is not echoed by today’s researchers.
Yes, it’s possible that thousands of scientists are wrong
Unzicker says that believing that science produces pure facts is naive. Scientists observe, and then they interpret the results. If an interpretation is dominated by a consensus of scientists, it is accepted as at least tentatively true — or not untrue. Many mistake this process as yielding solid fact. It has happened many times throughout history, including overlooking continental drift. Today, Unzicker says, there is a kind of groupthink that is weakening the important field of physics.
Alexander Unzicker is a German physicist and science writer. He has degrees in both physics and law and a Ph.D. in neuroscience from Munich University (summa cum laude).
If a “concensus scientist” is making money for supporting a theory (like all those concerned scientists who get grant-rich supporting global warming while covering up data that doesn’t “prove” their theory), then his “vote” should be disqualified.