Many centuries ago, Saint Augustine was troubled by the question “What was God doing before He created the world?” In a brilliant (but pre-scientific) analysis, Augustine examined the concept of time, and proposed—roughly speaking—that without finite minds to apprehend it, or clocks to measure it, time as we know it ceases to exist. Thus, according to Augustine, time itself came into existence together with the created world—not before! And so, his troublesome theological question evaporated. Maybe a similar fate awaits our modern physical analogue: “What happened before the big bang?” Or maybe not.
In any case, we’ve learned for sure that there’s much more to the world than meets the eye. Seeing is an active process. The harder you look, the more you find. Where our unaided eyes see Nothing, our creative minds, through vigorous investigation, discover very much indeed.
PROFESSOR FRANK WILCZEK is considered one of the world's most eminent theoretical physicists. He is known, among other things, for the discovery of asymptotic freedom, the development of quantum chromodynamics, the invention of axions, and the discovery and exploitation of new forms of quantum statistics (anyons). When only 21 years old and a graduate student at Princeton University, in work with David Gross he defined the properties of color gluons, which hold atomic nuclei together.
Professor Wilczek is a second-generation American and a graduate of New York City's public schools. Presently he is the Herman Feshbach Professor of Physics at MIT. Professor Wilczek has received many honors. Notably, he was among the earliest MacArthur Fellows (1982–87) and in 2004 he received the Nobel Prize in Physics. He contributes regularly to Physics Today and to Nature, explaining topics at the frontiers of physics to wider scientific audiences, and is much in demand as a public lecturer. He received the Lilienfeld Prize of the American Physical Society for these activities. Two of his pieces have been anthologized in Best American Science Writing (2003, 2005). Together with his wife Betsy Devine, he wrote a beautiful book, Longing for the Harmonies (W.W. Norton). His latest book, The Lightness of Being: Mass, Ether, and the Unification of Forces (Perseus) appeared in September 2008. He's now hard at work on The Attraction of Darkness, a novel mixing science, music, sex, and murder.
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