I didn’t want to believe that the half-lives of radioactive isotopes could change. Black holes, white holes, and wormholes are just far to fun to ever want to give up! Nevertheless, if I have to choose one of those two theories to be wrong (because they are incompatible), I will to choose general relativity, because quantum mechanics works so incredibly well when it is applied to small things like the nucleus.įor a long time, there was something else I didn’t want to believe. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t want general relativity to be wrong, either. For example, I don’t want to believe quantum mechanics is wrong just because it is incompatible with general relativity. It’s amazing enough to study something we can never hope to actually see, but the fact that the nucleus is shrouded by clouds of electrons makes the job all the more fun.īecause I am a nuclear chemist, there are certain things I don’t want to believe. I chose to be a nuclear chemist because studying the nucleus fascinates me.
