What if everything we believe today turns out to be junk science? When Paul Dirac was asked, ‘What is a proton?’ he filled a blackboard with mathematical symbols, pointed to a letter in the middle of the equation, and said, ‘That is a proton.’ How is that different from examining the entrails of a bird? I believe Dirac was saying the proton does not exist except as a part of a mathematical equation. In my fantasy novel Illusion I created a double universe, one universe of protons and another, oppositely charged universe of positrons, both universes existing side by side inside an electron, unaware of the existence of the other, all of this consistent with current quantum theory. Mathematics can be, and frequently is, adjusted to make the theory work. Newton and everyone else saw only five colors in a rainbow, but Newton could not make the math work until he created two unseen colors in the rainbow, orange and indigo, and because he was Newton, we believe to this day that those unseen colors must be there. Newtonian physics explained much, but not all, Quantum physics explains much, but not all. The successor to both will simplify and be testable. Only then will we know if the proton and the positron exist and possibly even answer the question ‘are they two separate particles or are they the same particle, simultaneously both proton and positron,’ and whether or not which it is at any given time depends on when and how it is observed. Until then, we are little advanced beyond the once believed science of augury.

With Newton apples were the core
Of scientific knowledge
That gravity is nothing more
Than what you’re told in college
The quantum seen as ghostly sarks
Reacts when you excite ‘em
Where quarks are made of smaller quarks
And on ad infinitum