Surf Rock

An impoverished surfer has drawn up a new theory of the universe, seen by some as the Holy Grail of physics, which as received rave reviews from scientists. The E8 pattern (left), Garrett Lisi surfing (middle) and out of the water (right)

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...

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Particle Physics gives me a Large Hadron

I have incidentally just shaved my moustache, but left the chin point, which I have found is decidedly 'surf'. This article is synchronicity. Hi-5 to Garret Lisi.

This is a science journal, but the article mentions 'convincing the establishment'. I frankly disregard you, 'establishment', and use your science work to further my own and vice versa. The establishment is the corporate-money-sponsored science vocations designed to enhance profit. Profit is incidental to understanding science. The appropriate universal libertarian goals can be provided using physics. New elements of biology and psychology can be researched and added to the public realm of knowledge with close understanding of physics and biological conscious fields and functions. Scientists have found that EM data is alive. Some electromagnetic fields are living. That is the greatest discovery of 2007.