Good example of how scientists need to step away from 'the textbooks' & group-think every so often

 In theoretical physics for the past 50 or so years, thousands of the world's best physics minds have dedicated themselves to looking for the quantum theory of gravity. Since Einstein, the dream has been to unify gravity with the other three forces of nature into a single theory - no one has done it, despite the HUGE effort given to this problem for decades. And on the experimental side, nothing has been found that suggests gravity comes in 'bundles' just like something like light comes in bundles of energy we call a photon.                  

Despite the lack of any substantial breakthrough, everyone keeps plugging away, assuming gravity MUST be quantized since the other forces are. In science, putting blinders on while looking to answer the unknown is dangerous. Part of the process of science is to be skeptical, even of things we do know! Check out this article and video about physicist Jonathan Oppenheim from University College of London, who has made the assumption that maybe gravity is not quantized as we all have been thinking - what if it is how Einstein describes it in General Relativity, where it is not a true force but rather just the consequence of curved space-time? 

Prof. Oppenheim and his students are developing a theory, as well as suggestions for experiments, that could test whether gravity is simply different and is a 'classical' force rather than a quantum force. When I teach gravity and Einstein's model, and we get into the modern thinking about quantum gravity, we have over the years asked the question if gravity might not be quantized, and that's why it is so different from the other three forces of nature and why no one has found the unified theory. It is good to see this possibility getting some attention and those isolated few who question the textbooks and group think that can happen in science...scientists are still humans, and fall into the same patterns and traps as everyone else! 

I look forward to seeing where this work goes, as all that matters is we make progress in understanding the true nature of Nature, regardless of whether it fits into our assumptions and expectations or not!