John Preskill is a contributing columnist for Quanta Magazine. Read his July 15 column Spotting Black Holes in the Lab
James O’Brien for Quanta Magazine
The study of quantum gravity is an extreme case of theory getting in front of experiment. We have a quite satisfactory understanding of quantum physics at the scale of atoms and subnuclear particles, but no experimentally validated quantum theory that applies to very strong gravitational forces. Without such a theory we cannot understand what happened in the early universe right after the Big Bang, or predict the exact fate of an unfortunate astronaut compressed to unimaginably high density within a black hole. We need experiments to guide us, yet they are depressingly elusive.
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