Tantalizing Ambiguity

There is something wrong with science. Promises of big breakthroughs that could fundamentally change our understanding of reality have burned brightly for a little while during the past three decades, only to quietly fade away or sputter out. Remember when mapping the human genome was going to revolutionize medicine and lead to cures for everything from cancer to dementia? Or when radio telescopes set up to search for extra­terrestrial intelligence in the 1960s evoked dreams of contact with alien life forms? The Human Genome Project wrapped up in 2003 with no revolution in sight. And last year, SETI’s 42 radio telescopes were temporarily mothballed without evidence that there is anyone else out there.

Even scientists and mathematicians who only a few years ago thought they had finally grasped the Holy Grail of science—a Theory of Everything—with string theory have watched a favoured theory founder on a combination of mathematical complexity and unprovability. The...