Physicists Revive 150-Year-Old ‘Knot’ Theory to Explain Matter

For various, typically historical reasons, even the best physicists claim things that sound egregious to modern observers. That doesn’t necessarily mean these ideas are completely useless—if anything, theories once dismissed might just be what scientists need to break a stalemate in existential physics.

Writing for Physical Review Letters , a team of Japanese physicists does exactly that, offering a new interpretation of an 1867 theory describing atoms as “knots” in the aether. The paper does not advocate for aether, the so-called “fifth” element from ancient and medieval science. Rather, the researchers consider a version of the universe’s history where cosmic knots of energy slowly untangled into matter as we know it today.

A knotty problem?

All matter in the universe has an evil