Overview

Sheldon L. Glashow (1932- ), Steven Weinberg (1933- ), and Abdus Salam (1926-1996) jointly received the 1979 Nobel Prize in physics "for their contributions to the theory of the unified weak and electromagnetic interaction between elementary particles, including inter alia the prediction of the weak neutral current." The Glashow-Weinberg-Salam theory of electroweak interactions is, in fact, the first experimentally proven scheme at unifying in a single set of fundamental laws two of nature's four basic forces. This major step in theoretical physics greatly enhanced our comprehension of the universe and lies at the foundation of subsequent attempts at unifying all natural forces.

Background

Aristotle thought that all matter...