The pursuit of a deeper truth, a fundamental theory that underlies all others, is a powerful motivator in physics. But it’s not the only one. Equally valid are curiosity and awe at the richness of nature – at the way seemingly unrelated processes can produce order, beauty and diversity from chaos.
The first motivation is evident in high-energy physics, where the idea of finding a “theory of everything” occupies many talented theoreticians. The second is found in fields such as evolutionary biology and astronomy. Until recently the two approaches hardly interacted, but now the discovery of dark energy is creating a…
