STUMBLING BLOCKS AGAINST UNIFICATION: ON SOME PERSISTENT MISCONCEPTIONS IN PHYSICS

The history is full of misconceptions that opposed the progress of physics. The book starts with reviewing some historical cases, such as the arguments against the Earth rotation, or the famous problem of ¾ in the theory of electromagnetic mass of electron. After having pointed out that misconceptions have been common in the history of physics, it is argued that they must be present today as well. In fact, it is now commonly being realized that in the last forty years there has been no significant progress in the fundamental theoretical physics. A reason certainly lies in certain stumbling blocks on our way towards the unification of interaction and of gravity with quantum mechanics. The author discusses what he perceives as some persisting misconceptions that have not yet been recognized as such by physics community in general.