Surfer Discovers the Answer to Life, the Universe and Everything

An impoverished surfer has drawn up a new theory of the universe, seen by some as the Holy Grail of physics, which has received rave reviews from scientists.

Garrett Lisi, 39, has a doctorate but no university
affiliation and spends most of the year surfing in Hawaii, where he has
also been a hiking guide and bridge builder (when he slept in a jungle
yurt).

In winter, he heads to the mountains near
Lake Tahoe, Nevada, where he snowboards. "Being poor sucks," Lisi says.
"It's hard to figure out the secrets of the universe when you're trying
to figure out where you and your girlfriend are going to sleep next
month."

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He has high hopes that his new theory could provide
what he says is a "radical new explanation" for the three decade old
Standard Model, which weaves together three of the four fundamental
forces of nature: the electromagnetic force; the strong force, which
binds quarks together in atomic nuclei; and the weak force, which
controls radioactive decay.

The reason for the
excitement is that Lisi's model also takes account of gravity, a force
that has only successfully been included by a rival and highly
fashionable idea called string theory, one that proposes particles are
made up of minute strings, which is highly complex and elegant but has
lacked predictions by which to do experiments to see if it works.

But some are taking a cooler view. Prof Marcus du Sautoy, of Oxford
University and author of Finding Moonshine, told the Telegraph: "The
proposal in this paper looks a long shot and there seem to be a lot
things still to fill in."