Hi Folks,

Greetings from Peekskill, NY.

Just in case you happened to have missed this fascinating tidbit, I thought I'd bring it to your attention. To some, this will be earth-shattering news. The following is summarized from an online article in the Telegraph:

An impoverished surfer-dude, named, Garrett Lisi, has developed a new theory of the universe, seen by some as the Holy Grail of physics, which has received rave reviews from scientists.

39 year old, Lisi, who has a PhD in physics, spends most of the year surfing in Hawaii. In winter, he heads to the mountains near Lake Tahoe, Nevada, where he snowboards. 

His elegant theory is based upon the properties of a beautifully intricate, geometric shape known as E8 - a complex, eight-dimensional mathematical pattern with 248 points first found in 1887 (see illustrations above).

Ever since Albert Einstein's theory of relativity sent ripples through the time-space continuum, physicists have been searching for a unifying T.O.E. -  that's a 'Theory of Everything' (as opposed to a warm fuzzy pair of slippers.)

Einstein's formula, E=MC², while proven useful ( atomic bombs, nuclear power plants, microwave ovens ) still fails to incorporate the mysterious force we know of as 'gravity'.

[ Despite what the experts may say, no one really knows how gravity works (if they claim to, they're lying) and, up until now, no one has successfully incorporated gravity into the standard model of physics. ]

Lisi's startling discovery has to do with his noticing that all of the known particles of physics - electrons, neutrinos, gluons, quarks, etc... - could be accurately described, along with their relative properties, by placing each of them on one of the points of the E8 geometric shape.

What's more, the theory has room for 20 missing particles, which he theorizes will easily incorporate the gravitational forces.

Over the last few decades governments have spent billions in research on the convoluted 'string' theory - a theory requiring multiple dimensions and bizarre constructs, which has yielded mostly frustrating results. Lisi's E8 theory entitled, '"An Exceptionally Simple Theory of Everything"', indeed, offers a simpler solution and one which is also testable. As you might expect, the theory has its critics and skeptics and Lisi, himself, acknowledges that his theory must be thoroughly tested before being proven true.

I don't pretend to understand any of this but it's still amazing and fun to ponder. If nothing else, it shows, once again, that incredible things can be accomplished by a determined outsider thinking waaaaaay outside the box. Speaking of boxes, I can't help but wonder whether Lisi ever played with this Spirograph drawing set as a kid. ;-)

Check out this extremely cool youtube animation which will give you a tiny inkling of what Lisi's theory is all about:

Pretty wild stuff, huh?

You can read the entire article at the following link: Surfer dude develops new theory...
 

Meanwhile, wishing everybody a Happy Thanksgiving and may gravity always be your friend!

All the best,

Deano