Virtually all currently accepted standard models of physics exhibit shortcomings. Discrepancies in observed natural laws exist in quantum science, particle physics, relativity and cosmology. What appear to be fundamental laws in one discipline of physics do not necessarily apply in others.
The science of cosmology, for example, was based initially on wild speculation. But as often happens, what was once wild speculation becomes belief and even fact if enough people, particularly the scientific establishment itself, mathematical physicists, and string theorists get on the same band wagon for long enough. Now we have a situation where the common belief, taken by many as the definitive answer, is that the universe started with a Big Bang around 14 billion years ago. Yet, whilst there are a lot of theories and extensive research (theoretical and obesrvational) there is no conclusive evidence of this. No single theory has yet emerged that is able to unify all of science under a common umbrella, fundamental to how nature and the universe really works.
For an insightfull peek into the very heart of this important topic, I highly recommend that you visit the top picks in our Bookstore or click on the following title to access the "Trouble With Physics" by theoretical physicist Lee Smolin - definitely one of the best books ever written for the layman about the problems with modern science in properly conceiving of and modelling the laws of nature.
This skillfully written and easy to understand book by one of the planet's top theoretical physicists provides great insights into the history and plight of modern physics to fully explain the Laws of Nature and the Science of the Universe.
It is perhaps the most thorough, up-to-date, treatise on the subject and highlights the key problems that modern physics (which deals with the science of nature) has, across virtually every major discipline, in providing a correct and complete understanding of the fundamental laws which govern matter, energy, space, and time. Lee Smolin points out that a more complete Science of Nature needs to address and resolve the following issues:
- Unify Quantum Theory and General Relativity into a single theory that can claim to be complete theory of nature.
- Resolve the problems in the foundations of quantum mechanics either by making sense of the theory as it stands or by inventing a new theory that does make sense ... quantum physics presently fails to offer any insight into fundamental reality at the quantum level.
- Determine whether or not the various particles and forces in physics can be unified in a theory that explains them all as manifestations of a single, fundamental entity. There are presently TWELVE different "exotic" particles and FOUR fundamental forces ... does science have the correct model here or is there a better unified model that is more fundamental? The answers here may require "thinking outside the BOX".
- Explain how the values of the free constants in the standard model of particle physics are chosen in nature. As it stands, the standard model includes some 20 constants that have no theoretical basis, making the model more like a huge calculator whose outcomes are as arbitrary as the values chosen for its free constants.
- Explain Dark Matter and Dark Energy both of which are concepts invented by our cosmologists to explain certain cosmological observations - there things make up some 96% of our observed Universe. If they don't exist, determine how and why gravity is modified on large scales. More generally, explain why the constants of the standard model of cosmology, including dark energy have the values they do.
