Why is theoretical physics like like Dungeons and Dragons?
I was picturing basic
levels of understanding as a series of dungeons–you fight your way through one, hoping to find the next.
The 19th century: science was looking at atoms, molecules, periodic
table, yadda yadda…
Then Rutherford
kicked open a hidden door–tiny indestructible atoms turned out to be tinier nuclei under a
fluffy cloud of electrons. A new world to explore, a whole new level.
And so on, yadda yadda, protons to quarks to gluons…of course the
best find, on any level, is the hidden door to the next–like figuring out how the strong interaction works.
Anyway, thanks to Scripps Howard reporter Rebecca Trela for including
me with her Nobel Prize interviews yesterday. Even if she did claim my
husband disagreed with me and found pictures and (non D&D)
metaphors “his biggest helpmates.”