Loop quantum gravity (LQG) is a non-perturbative, background-independent approach to quantising spacetime that seeks to merge the principles of quantum mechanics and general relativity. In this ...

For more than a century, modern physics has rested on two towering frameworks that do not quite agree with each other.

Large masses – such as a galaxy – curve space-time. Objects move along a geodesic. If we take into account that space-time itself has quantum properties, deviations arise (dashed line vs. solid line).

Gravity, long the sovereign force in the cosmic hierarchy, may be little more than a statistical side effect a byproduct of entropy, not a fundamental interaction. That is the provocative assertion ...