How wrong he was.
The following century completely turned physics on its head.
A huge number oftheoretical and experimental discoverieshave transformed our understanding of the universe, and our place within it.
Dont expect the next century to be any different.
The first concerns the fundamentals of our existence.
Physics predicts that the Big Bang produced equal amounts of the matter you are made of and something calledantimatter.
Most particles of matter have an antimatter twin, identical but with the opposite electric charge.
When the two meet, they annihilate each other, with all their energy converted into light.
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But the universe today is made almost entirely out of matter.
Sowhere has all the antimatter gone?
The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) has offered some insight into this question.
The LHC has shown that matter and antimatter decay at slightly different rates.
This goes part but nowhere near all of the way to explaining why we see an asymmetry in nature.
This makes it difficult to accurately measure their properties for further clues to why so much antimatter has disappeared.
Three new colliderswillchange the gamein the coming decades.
These investigations could reveal entirely new physics.
It is impossible to predict how as-yet hidden discoveries from collider experiments will change our lives.
Alone no more?
Despite the recent discovery of liquid water onMars, there is not yet any evidence of microbial life.
Even if found, the planets harsh environment means it would be incredibly primitive.
The search for life on planets in other star systems has so far not borne fruit.
This works in much the same way as using your hand to block sunlight from entering your eyes.
This article is republished fromThe ConversationbyRobin Smith, Lecturer in Physics,Sheffield Hallam Universityunder a Creative Commons license.
