The Theory of Everything

“Every word is necessary and means something… Physics is about precision of thought, which is aided and evidenced by precision of language.” in Forces Of Nature

I am a fan of Prof. Brian Cox, his TV presentations, and more recently his books so this quote stood out for me. Also recently, I have been involved in a baseball project and was reminded of some great names in the sport. Thanks to TV and films like Bull Durham, I had heard of Jackie Robinson and Yogi Berra, Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig. While the name of the latter rang familiar, by the time I was more fully immersed in nursing I couldn't remember why. His life and passion was brought to an abrupt halt by the disease - known in the UK as Motor Neurone Disease (or ALS) - which is associated in the US with Gehrig's name. And this week we remembered the amazing life of Stephen Hawking who passed away and who had been limited - physically, not mentally - by the same disease.

Physicists have willingly, it appears, taken on the task of explaining the seemingly unintelligible in the most precise of language so that we might share the beauty, and not just the ills, of the planet we all inhabit. They continue to write about the truth of our world in fabulous, beautiful words.