Over the last two weeks you have probably picked up on the considerable excitement in the news over the confirmation of the existence of gravity wave. So why all the fuss?

Gravity waves were first predicted by Albert Einstein’s general theory of relativity over a century ago. Einstein postulated that objects like planets and stars, warp space time through their gravitational force. The classic illustration of this is a stretched piece of rubber onto which heavy spheres (representing planets, etc) are placed. The objects deform the rubber sheet into a valley around them, much like gravity warps the space time field. And it this which holds a moon in locked in orbit around its planet, and a planet around its star, all whirling in a never ending celestial dance. However, as predicted by Einstein, time is also being effected. 

I don’t know about you, but when I watched the film Interstellar, for someone who grew up during the space race, it pulled at my wannabe astronaut’s soul. However, until now, journeying to the stars is something that we have only be able to do in science fiction. However, thanks to NASA’s Eagleworks team’s work, there’s a chance that one day we may be able to achieve this long held dream. Enter stage left, the EmDrive.

As we all all know, light speed is meant to be the speed limit. After all Einstein told us it was impossible to exceed. However, someone needs to tell the scientists working on the EmDrive, this.

The EmDrive, invented by English researcher Roger Shawye, is a microwave chamber that bounces waves back and forth to produce thrust. However, a strange thing is that it appears to produce more thrust that it should. But how can that be possible?

“Reality can be beaten with enough imagination.” – Mark Twain

One second after the big bang a particle was created and has been playing a game of hide and seek ever since. The reason we know it should exist is that there’s a piece missing from our jigsaw for the Standard Model of physics – the Higgs boson particle. Now a lot of people are very fond of our Standard Model and a jigsaw just doesn’t look complete if there’s a big glaring hole in it. So ever since the idea was first suggested, the search has been on for the elusive God Particle. 

The theory, which has been around for fifty years, states that moments after the big bang the Higgs boson field and its associated particle were created, but until now we’ve found no direct evidence. That’s all changed in 2011 when news from the Large Hadrian Collider (LHC), where we can recreate those early conditions of our universe, hinted at its detection.

Without Higgs boson in the Standard Model there would be no life... symmetry would rule, a desire for order you see reflected in the perfect structures of snowflakes. But without something to give particles mass and slow them down, the Higgs boson field, our celestial treacle if you will, things would be very, very different. All particles would have flown apart at the speed of light from the big bang and without the clumping of interstellar gasses and the consequent formation of stars, then there would be no planets and certainly no life. This is the paradox at the heart of modern physics and is why so many scientists have been spent so much time and energy looking for it.

This year could be the most exciting moment in physics since Einstein revealed his theory of relativity. Certainly I’m sure for many of those involved in theoretical physics, they’ll remember exactly when they were if they hear the news confirming the existence of the Higgs boson particle later this year.