Unification
Unification
[Ten rounded frames with text inside are shown in two rows. Below each frame there is a line going down and then this line either joins with one or two of the other frames lines or in two cases do not joins with any other. At the bottom of the panel the now five remaining lines turn towards the center of the bottom of the panel and ends in arrows that points towards three question marks. The first three frames' lines are unified, same goes for the next two, and the three after that. The lines of the last two are not joined with any other lines. The text in the transcript is given as it appears from left to right, disregarding if it is the top or bottom row, but this will alternate through the ten frames, starting with one up, then one down etc.]
[Group one, starting with up:] Electricity Magnetism Weak force
[Group two starting with down:] East Germany West Germany
[Group three starting with down:] Star Wars Disney Pixar
[Two single frames, the first is up:] Strong force Gravity
[All five arrows points to this:] ???
[Caption below the panel:] Progress toward unifying the fundamental forces of nature

In physics, the fundamental interactions, also known as fundamental forces, are the interactions that do not appear to be reducible to more basic interactions. There are four fundamental interactions known to exist: the gravitational and electromagnetic interactions, which produce significant long-range forces whose effects can be seen directly in everyday life, and the strong and weak interactions, which produce forces at minuscule, subatomic distances and govern nuclear interactions. Some scientists speculate that a fifth force might exist, but, if so, it is not widely accepted nor proven.
This comic lists five physical forces (it split up electricity and magnetism), but also includes a number of other things (two countries and three businesses) that are known for "unifying" in a non-physics sense. East and West Germany united politically in 1990 , more than forty years after being divided at the end of World War II . Entertainment company Disney has united in a business sense with a number of others over the years; the comic mentions animation studio Pixar and the Star Wars franchise. The comic states that this is the progress toward unifying the fundamental forces of nature, which is absurd, with the addition of Disney and Germany , neither of which is one of the fundamental forces. [ citation needed ] Star Wars is, of course, all about The Force , but this has, for some reason, gone unnoticed by most physicists.
The title text jokes that some physicists tried to unify the force of gravity with the 2013 movie Gravity , starring Sandra Bullock . Of course, this is also absurd, but it turns out that this is just another jab by Randall at George Lucas for selling his rights to Star Wars to Disney . The jab comes when he makes it clear that the director of Gravity Alfonso Cuarón would refuse to sell the rights to his film to Disney, even if he was held in underground chamber of water for 10 31 years.
This water chamber and incredible time span is a reference to Proton decay , which is being investigated by trying to detect the Cherenkov radiation that could occur from possible decay of protons in water. These measurements are being conducted in immense water tanks buried under mountains to protect them against similar signals that could result from cosmic radiation. The same type of tanks have been used to detect neutrinos .
The half life of protons is currently believed to be between 10 31 –10 36 years. This should be compared to the age of the universe at around 1.3×10 10 years, which means that one second compared to the age of the universe is larger than the age of the universe compared to the smallest suggested half life of the proton (as used in the comic) by a factor of about 10,000, but even this time would not make Cuarón cave in...
[Ten rounded frames with text inside are shown in two rows. Below each frame there is a line going down and then this line either joins with one or two of the other frames lines or in two cases do not joins with any other. At the bottom of the panel the now five remaining lines turn towards the center of the bottom of the panel and ends in arrows that points towards three question marks. The first three frames' lines are unified, same goes for the next two, and the three after that. The lines of the last two are not joined with any other lines. The text in the transcript is given as it appears from left to right, disregarding if it is the top or bottom row, but this will alternate through the ten frames, starting with one up, then one down etc.]
[Group one, starting with up:] Electricity Magnetism Weak force
[Group two starting with down:] East Germany West Germany
[Group three starting with down:] Star Wars Disney Pixar
[Two single frames, the first is up:] Strong force Gravity
[All five arrows points to this:] ???
[Caption below the panel:] Progress toward unifying the fundamental forces of nature
