Quanta and relativity
two failed revolutions
pp. 107-112
in: Diederik Aerts, Jan Broekaert, Ernest Mathijs (eds), Einstein meets Magritte: an interdisciplinary reflection, Berlin, Springer, 1999Abstract
This article is divided in two parts, one on Quanta and Quantum Mechanics and the other on Relativity and Gravitation. In each the plan will be the same: after having recalled briefly the situation and the problem as it was at the very beginning of this century, I will introduce the two new revolutionary sciences, Quanta and Relativity. I will explain how they have grown up and attracted the attention of the physical community. Curiously, the impact has not been so profound and has not radically changed the image of the world in the mind of the physicists, theoreticians, experimentalists or even philosophers, this in spite of all their successes.