- Belgian researcher Thomas Hertog has published a book detailing the last theory of British physicist Stephen Hawking before his death in 2018. The theory aims to overturn scientific understanding of the universe and suggests that the universe is a hologram and time is an illusion.
- Hawking and Hertog collaborated for two decades on this theory, which challenges the traditional view of the universe as a three-dimensional space with time as the fourth dimension and could change how we understand the universe and approach the study of physics.
- Their collaboration resulted in a groundbreaking new theory that could turn how science looks at the universe on its head and lead to new insights and discoveries.
Renowned physicist Stephen Hawking passed away in 2018, leaving behind a legacy of groundbreaking research and theories that have reshaped our understanding of the universe. Perhaps his most ambitious project, however, was the Final Theory, which aimed to unify the forces of the universe into a single, elegant framework. Now, new insights have been revealed about this theory by his last collaborator, Professor Nomura of the University of California, Berkeley.
Nomura shared his insights at the recent International Conference on High Energy Physics, shedding light on Hawking’s last project. “The Final Theory was something Stephen had been working on for decades,” Nomura explained. “It was his ultimate goal, something he believed was the key to unlocking the secrets of the universe.”
The Final Theory builds on the work of Einstein’s General Relativity and Quantum Mechanics, two of the most important pillars of modern physics. These two theories have been remarkably successful in describing the behavior of the universe at both the largest and smallest scales, respectively. However, they are fundamentally incompatible with each other, and reconciling them has been one of the biggest challenges facing physics for the past century.
Hawking’s solution, according to Nomura, was a bold and revolutionary approach. “He proposed that the universe is actually a hologram, with all of the information in it encoded on a two-dimensional surface,” Nomura said. “This idea has been around for a while, but Stephen believed that it could not only reconcile quantum mechanics and relativity but also explain dark energy and dark matter, two mysterious phenomena that have long puzzled physicists.”
The holographic principle suggests that our three-dimensional universe is essentially a projection of information stored on a two-dimensional surface at its boundary, like a hologram. This implies that all the laws of physics can be reduced to a simpler set of rules that govern this surface, making it easier to understand the universe as a whole.
Nomura, who worked closely with Hawking on the Final Theory, believes that this idea has enormous potential. “It’s a new way of looking at the universe that could help us solve some of the biggest mysteries in physics,” he said. “It’s a fitting legacy for Stephen’s groundbreaking work.”
While much work remains to be done to fully develop the Final Theory, it represents an exciting new direction for physics, one that could ultimately lead to a complete understanding of the universe and our place in it. Thanks to Hawking’s insights and dedication, this goal is closer than ever before.