Fundamental physics appears to be entering a new phase. And this
new phase has many physicists worried. Human curiosity about
natural phenomena has always exceeded what was merely necessary
for survival. On one hand, this curiosity has led to the
generation of elaborate mythologies and religions. On the other,
it brought about the ascent of science. The desire to explain
the universe, and to make definitive predictions about cosmic
phenomena on all scales, has been one of the key drivers of
science since the pioneering thinking of Galileo, Descartes, and
Newton. The achievements have been truly astounding. In fact, we
now have a verifiable "story" for the evolution of the universe
from the time it was no more than a minute old to the present.
One of the main pillars on which scientists have always
constructed their theories (the so-called "scientific method")
was falsifiability—theories had to make clear predictions that
could be directly tested by experiments or observations. The
hope has been, that we can f