Something Weird Happens When E = –mc²

Ever wondered how flipping the famous equation leads to an entire “anti-universe”? This Veritasium video unpacks Paul Dirac’s journey from the (flawed) Schrödinger and Klein-Gordon equations to his eponymous Dirac equation, showing how his math demanded the existence of antiparticles—electrons’ mirror twins that behave like they’re traveling backwards in time.

Along the way, you get expert commentary from Graham Farmelo and Cumrun Vafa, digs into Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle, and jumps through archival clips from Florida State University and Caltech to trace the positron’s discovery. It’s a fast-paced, approachable dive into one of modern physics’ weirdest—and most game-changing—stories.

Watch on YouTube