Something Weird Happens When E = –mc²

Veritasium takes us on a wild ride through Paul Dirac’s quest to marry quantum mechanics with relativity, revealing that his famous equation accidentally predicts negative energy states—an open door to an “anti-universe.” Starting with why the Schrödinger equation falls short, we jump into the Klein-Gordon detour before landing on Dirac’s own formulation and its mind-bending consequences.

Along the way, we meet the first predicted antiparticle (the positron), learn how antiparticles can be thought of as particles traveling backward in time, and glimpse the birth of the “anti-world.” With insights from Graham Farmelo and Cumrun Vafa, plus historic archives and slick animations, it’s both a physics lesson and a story of cosmic weirdness.

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