ing. es our Kimited understanding of ‘wo specific interrelated factors the ife cles of aero and the mnierplyies of loude themselves, “Aerorols reside that diference has a large effect on their climatic influence” he say. “That's sir for only a week or tw, but because lou form on these particles, Since the Inds Revo, the lob eve of eros has increased and yet determining just how this in- «reasng burden of particles has affected the world’s dod and then how the lous alet climate remains one of the grand challenges in limate science” Planetary scientist Andrew Inger, on the other hand, is mot focused on teasing spam the net-energy equation, ‘OF all he planets the slarsystem ith atmoxpheres, Earth absorbs the most energy per unit area, and yet it thas the weakest wind” he sys. That dean’ quite make sense he aks, since sir menement tend tobe inked to and riven by ferences in heat beeen round and ai What's sowing down, ‘our winds? Nobody knows. “Cleat” Ingersoll sys, “there's Tot we sill don’t ‘understand abut climate.” CLUES ALL AROUND US. ‘One way to try to get a better idea of ‘whats gong on st look othe past (Climate change ie turns out, hardly sn invention of modern humaniny (Cores extracted fom ancien coals and stalagmites by geachensns Joln Eer and Jos Adkins eve and upheavals inthe paleoetiate Indeed, grobiologst Woody Fischer bas found evidence sedimentary rocks that correlates several mas extinction not ja that of the din ateehange events. And there evidence eat it wn climatic presse th to evolve photosynthesis by study ing the chemical fooeprins they let behind, molecular geomicrbiologst Dianne Newnan can trace the various branching pathways they took. This suggests that an improved Understanding of the complex ier dependence between Earth and it ine babitants stl. “We've own since Darwin that the eeoaton of species is shaped by the pysical environment, explains biogeochest Alex Sexson But it arn oa hat che relationship isreciprocal: under the inflence of biology the planes itself i evolsing” An example: afer a willie scours gran hillsde, the resulting erosion epost sodiment dosent an plants take root i the newly eeate weal the si’ angle of repo increases, and new bil ars. Nothing evolves insolation, of ‘course, particularly under the stress precaced bya constantly siting climate. In this egar it appears that ‘one of the humblestonganisns on the lane has ch to tea chanced, Eavironmental microbial: sured | the termite would be unable o process eter has fund shat Tignocelllose—the substance that rakes up the cell walls in wood ts ut did't harbor digestive assembly Tine powered by a pair of conperaing Intern species. Goobiologie Victoria ‘Onphan is analyzing two cohabitating ‘deepsea microorganisms that work together ina chemical chin reaction for producing and consuming methane. Inboth these cases, each microbial species hod the key to just one part ofthe proces. Only through symbiotic ion are they able wo pl dei coop ‘energy-transfer rabbit ou of And that makes fing analogy for the current state of climate-change research where convergence isthe ‘watchword, where anew wave of portmantean specications has ‘urred ‘ite alacpines and where Caltech's a dazaing array of techniques and toolkits for bringing worldwide change to chang- ing world, are poked to uncover the answer to climate change Once they've worked aut the ques: tion, that is €8S, ‘boundaries between scen= researchers, armed wit Tred src is faa ing the Depart Nil Scie Fendt rmenber of sure of Energy aBy Mareus Y Woo Sbeautifil, even elegant in its simplicity. es profound, encapsulating of nat in afew mathematical symbols an elatonship pithy enough Sion a Thin. Is the socalled theory of everything, a complete under- standing ofthe lsws that gover the entire universe andi dee physics have been pursing fr centuries (One of the first attempts at a asic theory of nature was made in Greece in de ith century BC, when Democritus proposed that everything was made of atoms. Science has since not only proven the existence of ato, bc has shovm that ats themsches are compose of even smaller, more fundamental particles sich a electrons ad quarks. But Slopite brealuhroughs er the lst century, phic hae yt to develop ing framework tht explains allmatural phenomena a their most basic level, Even Albert Einstein spent the inal chapter of his ie hunting—in vnin—for such a theory. And, if so, what is it? Admittedly, the theory of everythings abit of gimmick. Mer al, o theory can explain eerting, Such a theory i nel when physicists ind it, won explain why nem ployment is high, why people fll in lve, why if exists on Earth, tomorra “You've never going to explain everything from just the basic lw of physics ies crazy” says Caltech physicist J bison quest fora unified re whether il ran Schware, who for more than 40 years has been on ony “When people wie that phrase—thenry of everything — ‘what do they mean by everthing? That can cause a lot of confusion: So hat exactly ist? The theory of everything—or, as some physicists prefer to calli ‘8 unified theory—reers toa single, cohesive Framework that explains how and hy all the fundamental particles and forces inthe universe behave and interact as they do. That ‘may sound enteric, ut you ean eed argue such a theory she bass for, wel, ‘everything. From citros to brains, fom planets to stirs, everything is made of elemen- tary partles, and the properties of everything ulimately depend om how thoxe particles nteract with ave another ‘TOWARD UNIFICATION ‘There ae four funeamental ores of mature: gray the electromagnetic force, the strong force (which hold atomic nuclei together, and the weak frce (which i response fo the sncear reactions that keep the sun shining and for radioactive dees which generates the energy that drives geological process on Earth). Those fores govern the behavior of smorgubord of elementary pares including electrons, neutrinos, quarks, and the Hisgs thos, he probable dscoery of which physica annoucedl amid much fanfare last sum mer atthe Large Hadron Callider ‘Thowe particles, along with the electromagnetic, strong, and weak forces, are described by the so-called tandarel model, a theory thats been confirmed again nl agin by experi- ments, making tone of the triumphs of 20kh-century physics. Many Caltech physicists including Nobel laureates Richard Feynman, Murray Gell Man, and Davi Polite Delpel lay is foundations. Bu, a (C)in Geneva psi txkay are eager to note,‘he standard models great,” aye (Cakech theoretical physicist Hires (Oguri. “Texplains almost every: {hing we knove about the phyies of clementary particles But thas only 5 percent of our universe.” The other 95 percent? Dark matter al dark energy Dark mater is the unseen stuff that makes up 27 percent of the costs Dark energy isan entirely diferent beast, a farce that accelerates the ics, which ie the backbone not only ‘of the standard model but of all physics especially at smal scales. In ‘order to probe tings like the centers ‘of black hoes or the moments afer the Big Bang, physicists need 0 fise ‘quan mechanics with gravity. Bat wen they ty: dhey get nonsensical descriptions of nature that ioe in finite numbers “There's no evidence that quannum mechanics is wrong,” ‘rough reality ike thread in the fabric of space and time. These strings vibrate, and the modes in whieh they vibrate manifest themselves as electrons, et ‘ino, quarks, and other fundamental partiles—tuch asthe vibrations of guitar strings manifest themuetves in a variey of ruses notes. In string ‘theory the properties of different eypes of string—their tension, for example— ive ris othe characterises of their “It wasn’t a problem that I had set out to solve, but it kind of hit me over the head.” expansion ofthe universe and accounts for about 68 percent ‘Aad then there's ravi ‘From the theors’s perspective, the mon presi sue is that dhe standard made of particle pysice des not mean grainy” Ong says Indeed, gravity abit of an oa, Although it scems such a tangible and abiquitus force in ur day ives i's extremely weak compared to the other faces. Mier ll small sage can Bit a papertip off table using the elec~ ‘romagnesc free, thus overpowering Ean’ gravy, ‘insti’ theory of general relaiviy isa theory of gravity describing the force asa warping of space and ime the fabric ofthe universe cased by anything with energy or mass which are equivalent, according vo E= me’) General relativity has been preven curate time andl ime again, from explaining a peculiar sift in Mereury's orbit to hoping your GPS pinpoint yous locaton. Sel, its ited ‘One problem is that gene does not get along with the b probabilistic laws of quanturn mechan notes Caltech ply Mask Wise “I. seem tobe the foundational concept far physies—and gravity should i inch.” But ight now it can. “The unifying theory tha physics Tong fee thereine quan theory ‘of gravity ome dht nies quar mechanic wih gravity and that ao incudes everything the standard model expains—pls dark matter and dak energy: But does sch a theory “Pim convince here va theory.” Sehwara says. Aer al here must be some explanation for what we dox’t yet understand, Whether physics ‘will ever come up with such ied theory however is uncertain. Over the decades, they've proposed various ‘candidates Sof the most sucess zamong dhem—though mat yet fly forested i string theory ALL STRUNG UP Asis name suggest, sting theory sometimes known as upersring theory penis that the universe isnt made of fundamental particles, but rather of stingike objects particular particles, auch as mas, spin, and eletrc charge. String theory was orginally devel: ‘oped in the 1960s asa way to explain how the strong force work, I could, Aad so, within afew aside in sit wumed o 1, pligscets had towed favor of more succes theory called {quantum chromodynamies—contribu- tions to which inthe "70s would wis, Politzer his Nobel in 2004 Then i 1974, Seiwa, ho Bal {ined Caltech two years previously research asocate, and joel Ser a sing scientist at Caltech atthe time, ‘realize! that tring theory predicted Ihe exitence ofa strange new particle whose proper precisely it those of Iypothetical panicle elle thegraviton "To understand why this signin, you ned to know tha, in the standard ‘model, every Fundamental free is ‘mediated by a particle, The electromag netic force, for example, i carried by photons. (A photon isa particle of igh, ‘which, by way of quantum weirdnes, cea alo be thought of as wave made ‘apo electric andl magnetic feds) And sy if there i to bea quantum theoryof gravity too will eed a particle deter Schrar, who, corminced thatthe great cscvery made in the United carry it the sillundiscovered grav mathematical beauy of string theory States at Cake,” he says, Looking ton, String theory, which had been ‘wasn'thappenstanee, prewed forward. intoit further, he realized that it pro an csterc idea destined fr the scrap He began working with Michael ‘ded base from which the propetis heap of physics became reimagined as Groen—now at Cambridge Universiy of all elementary particles could sity in England—to fic some ofthe math-—derived—somehing that the standard a posible quantum theory of ‘nce Schware and Scherk realized it ‘eatialinconsitences in string theory model, a rather ad hoc theory, does not incorporated the gravion, that prevented it fom filly explain. do. When guar realized that sting The discovery, Schwarz says was ingall of the physics inthe standard theory provided these walled ist at once startling and mathematically model. Oogur credits Caltech anc, in principles, he was amazed, “I thought beautifil, “What kept me going wasthe particu, Murray Gell Mann for sup- twas beautifil,” he says realization that it could make gravity poning Schwarz in his lonesome—and comsstent with quantum mechanics” rather rsky—quest When Schwarz SEARCHING FOR STRINGS the ells “Te wasnt problem that T and Green eventually suceeded, in Beautiful but mathematically and tad stout to soe, butt kind of hit 1984, sing theory became a bora de concepunlly complicated. And tht ime over the head, and I thought, Hey, candidate fr the tide of unified theory. 4 faa in parc tooo the that's prery good —Ta better fllw Aad this ine, physicists the would over hallmarks of sting theory: it requiees thar up” ‘wok notice at et) nine dimensions of pace ‘When Schware ane Scherk pub Among chem wes Coguri, who had Fished their ess in 1974, no one just started grace school in Japan, Belo: Cal pi Jon Stvore i one sccm on, That dd ‘heart a rumor that there wasAbe: Hinsi Ogi ow of lain string rls “That's sie more than the thee we're al acinted with: up/down, leR/ ‘ght, and forward/backward How conld there be another ax that we ant see or experince? Sting theory says ‘hese extra dimensions are wo cued up and thus so sll we da them, To get an idea of whae that means, imagine a box that's placed Ea sway foe you Although you know the box dhee-dimensional—with length, width, and depth—from where you're sanding it appears so small hat it tooks tke a point, with no dimen. Sons at all Analogously thee ext limensons woul be too tiny for toexperience them. Trying to imagine sx curled up sexta dimensions gives mont people ‘each; now imagine the math rede o describe ther, One major Inurl wasn compating the distance Ihenween to points in sx dimensions basic tas without which you cant ceulate much in a theory that requires somany dimensions “I tok that as challenge,” says Oogusi, who spent the 10 years lier Schwarz and Gi Auough tackling Although 1 ay’ physics and mathematicians til don't now bow to compute dances in the higher numberof mensions sed tise suceslly devtoped mathemati= cal tools that can be wed wo circumvent the problem and make physical seme of As physicists contin to debe deeper ito string theory developing ‘more mathematical ool and ideas, the field has progresed rapidly. But there remaira a major problenn: there tno ‘experimental or observational evidence to support string theon, other than the Which is nc to say no one as tre Indeed, ich of crren scent or ston ring teary ie facie ‘on figuring out way to tet it, One ps Silty would be to observe strings that cognate in the easly iver. strings by now would be so stretched bythe univers’ expansion thar they should span the entire common. They'd be extremely thin, sure, but they'd aso be dense enough to create noticeable pps in space and time, bend igh, ‘or produce other eects detectable by astronomers And yet ofa, no one has ben able to observe then, Asher way to find evidence fr stings so probe nature at is deepest an most Faanental eels phenomena at increasingly ny sales Aad to reach those extreme scales, you, noe to stam partils together sith ‘Which is why so many physics including those hoping ofnd hws (of svg theory fle tothe LH the most powerfil particle acceler tori the word By colliding particles at nearight speed, physicist atthe LAC can create matter tats as hot ane dense as the universe was mn claely aftr the Big Bong The hope is that those olson will eel signs ‘of extra cmensions—or that they will provide evidence to bolster an idea called supersymmetry: which Scare Ihelped originate as an essential of string theory. All particles aseither bosons ar ferns, and supersymmetry sa ype of symmetry that relates the two, Al of the normal matter in the universe is compen of fermions juch as electrons and qui) the force-carrying pastes are bosons such as photons and gluons), Every Pik has a hypashetial “superpan hee” that of the opposite type; for expartner is ‘boson called a “selecton.” None of these superparters hive been discov cred, however al they're honght 0 Jie extemely massive and unstable lsppearing ames 8 soon as they created, The only way tose if they ‘exists to be watching when theyre er ated-and the ony way to eeate thems isby smashing other particles together at places ike the LHC there were any experimental evidence of that sy, would be extremely exiting” Seber ys, Unfortunately no one as anything Hi cvidence of supersymmetry at the LIC hough physicists inchding a Caltech team led by Harvey Newnan and Maria Spiropalu-~are sill on the Tat, Schwa ana hie colleagues aren’. ti il eats physicists saysnd the LHC is now in the middle of an of justone sructare—a.tring—and “That's very ambious undertaking ‘upgrade that will doublet energy forte thas the basic ingredients to deseribe I not something you ca hope to next experimental ru, planned for De- everything we know about nate, achiev in just a decade oF 10.” cember 2014. There's fairchance that we're optimistic that somewhere in Even i string theory fails to be at those higher energies, the LHC willbe this framework the theory can make crowned ash unified theory, many feet able o detect supersymmetric parties, contact with the real worl,” Schwarz its mathematical spin-offs alone Schware says, and hat would be highly yx. hhave made it worthwhile. In the last encouraging frstring thery. “IF string theory were not promise few years, for example, pases have “The chances the LHC willbe ableto ing, and if we were not making prog: wed mathematical took that were de find exera dimensions, however, are a ess talented people wouldn't come veloped for string theory to describe the lovsmaller That's because, as Schwarz to thisarea and push this forward,” strange quantum sates of new kinds explains the amounc of energy they ‘Ooguei adds. And they ate definitely of materials such as high-temperanure reded ta find evidence for extra coming Inthe eaty days, Caltech's superconductors sions may be beyond the reach of the string theory groupy—which was one Ando, despite its challenges, LHC—even the soupedap weno, ff the mont aetve inthe world — physicists preston toward theory of That's not too surprising ince, if you consisted of Schware and maybe a everything with hope andl optimism, compute the energy at which phenom- couple of visitors or students. Today, "The sientfc method demand diligent cna predicted by a united theory would Caltech’s group incdes about a exploration, afer ll, and io. scientist, efnitely occur the answer you get dozen graduate students and post- such a quests mever fate number chats tnd till times docs. Tn ation to Sehware and W's never pointless when you're higher than wha’ porsibleat the LHC. oguri theoretical physicists Anton eying to igure out what the laws of “Thats where yout going to find Kapustn and Sergei Gukow also do narure ate—even iit ends up that the character phenomena of any research relating to string theory. theyre not found in the direction you relavistie quantum theory of grav Of course, even if string theorists were pursuing” Mark Wise says. “TL itywhether it string theory or any are on the right tack, they may sill be mean, that’ what physics isabout. competing idea,” Schwarz notes. “But_ decades from urveling afllfedged high sk, high reward. And we ees such phenomena are inaccessible unified theory. Mer all, they have tainly want wo take dhe isk." 95 to invent entirely new branches of ‘THE QUEST CONTINUES mathematics to deere their theory theres no experimental evidence for “We want to identify the fiandamental sé Ons th Fi Kl Pror of Thal Pysis end Mathmati. string theory—and if any poten eviews that—in principle—mathemsti- His oo prt by Sons ce sme eles a reach-then—_ cllesplain everything” Oogur sys “ \ shiepeate Peer cemer Arestigator Auoard, “why are so many physicists illinging ‘0 i? For one thing there jut aren't ‘many good replacement theories. By snore import Job Scares he Harold Bran Pofesor of Thana Physics ls piss say, recent Mask Wie the Jon A. McCane Pfr of High Brgy Physi. ‘Tesi done by Og, Scare and Wise is suport by Caltech, he De arent of Brey andthe Gord ‘an Baty Mane Funan, srsthenatcal deselopent inthis aren are jus om compeling to ignore, as theo- ts uncrar relationships th comnce snd unify seemingly disparate mat ematical objects stectues, and concepts that are part of string theory “The bottom Ine, people who work on string theory have develope a sense tha they dealing wih a mathematical structure that has some extraordinarily deep feanares that are absolutly fsc- nating” Sehwar sys ‘hus, sting theory seems to have everything that's needed for a unified theory. “BecVe meV ee Deed blink of a cosmic eye—we Rad understanding of ou place inthe ee ee ey Ce ee ene eed aaa on nents nese ST ST St canned Jar planets, more commonly known as systems form and evolve; and deciding cexoplanets, were out there, and there where our sun fits nto the spectrum Seno eet ae a ee ee ee ree eee ce er ee eee 1901, when astronomers first detected age-old question, “Are we alone?” Paneer ene ears ce nenneenenen inn ene er ene a he teen Penne nei mE Pot ee te aes were estentally alone. Four years later that we ae as alone in the cosmos as eee ne ened ‘we once thought we were. As astrono- dubbed 51 Pegasib orbiting a more mers identify more xoplaness, the eee rent nee ag Fastforward to today—an erain the universe— point othe posbiity whichis actly cificul oeep ‘that there ae other planets out there eee enero Ten Beene eee tent mE Ser er ier ees of exoplancs that have not only been ie allo the newly discovered worlds seen at confrmed.as planets by fol- were gat giants—enormous planets Jowup observations and analyses has hat, Hke Jupiter, are act primasiy peer eee et ee ee eet eee an additional 2000-plus unconfirmed host stars to harbor if, As techn Cee ee ees De es ee ere ‘And they are only the begin- See ning, according to astronomersJohn _Kepler—the average sie of deteced peered eran ae ras ‘recently published a paper siggesting ity of eandkdates now two to six ies Ce ee ad ‘hroughout the Milky Way:a total of ‘But what astronomers are relly Reesor ee aed Cod words there are sill lay of planets 08 wo 1.25 times the size of Earh and eer Se ed ee ee eee searching-—who are sometimes called the habitable zone, where conditions nts Seer eet ce eeeeeeny yee ‘poteven the such lofty goals at enhancing humanPoverty re Ce eet follow-up stds, it would be ideal i aaa eed fete erence ta abuze with the news thatthe Kepler pee nr ot ee eet ee Pane ere net peer eet eres tis ay ees eee eos Pants erent) eee ens ete net ey one Cor ay Se ed Ce ed Sere eee enced eee ee eet ed Peete rt Penson rae eet ere right in the thick of Some of those eee a eer are bury hunting planets. Others, [ke planetary astronomer Heather ‘Knuton, are characterizing their ocr ett ss NASA Bsoplanet Science Insiute [oa eee ret ee ens porting NASAs Exoplanet Explora- aan Peer ed ‘able of exoplanes both confirmed Seer eres ee pane Cay Ce Peay eat Soe ees eres eer nes Cees eee