One mysterious number determines how physics, chemistry and biology work. But controversial experimental hints suggest it’s not one number at all.
By Michael Brooks
IT IS a well-kept secret, but we know the answer to life, the universe and everything. It’s not 42 – it’s 1/137.
This immutable number determines how stars burn, how chemistry happens and even whether atoms exist at all. Physicist Richard Feynman, who knew a thing or two about it, called it “one of the greatest damn mysteries of physics: a magic number that comes to us with no understanding”.
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