Something Weird Happens When E = −mc²

Paul Dirac’s quest to make sense of negative energy in early quantum equations led him to a mind-bending breakthrough: his eponymous equation not only fixed Schrödinger’s issues but also predicted a mirror world of antimatter. By weaving in the Klein–Gordon equation, Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle, and some heavy math, Dirac showed that the universe must hide “anti-electrons” (positrons) and that antimatter could even be thought of as matter moving backward in time.

The result? A whole anti-universe lurking behind the scenes, later confirmed by experiments and archives from Caltech and FSU. This Veritasium video dives into the story—from Dirac’s lonely struggle and tragic chapters in physics history to the first discovery of the positron and the jaw-dropping idea that antiparticles are just time-reversed twins of our own.

Watch on YouTube