TL;DR

Veritasium unpacks how Paul Dirac’s quest to reconcile quantum mechanics and relativity led him to predict negative energy solutions—and, shockingly, a whole anti-universe filled with anti-electrons (positrons). From the failings of the Schrödinger and Klein–Gordon equations to the elegance of the Dirac equation and its bizarre implication that antiparticles zip backwards through time, this video traces the wild journey from theory to the real-world discovery of antimatter.

Along the way, we meet Dirac himself—dubbed “the strangest man in physics”—and learn how his bold math opened up one of modern physics’ saddest yet most exhilarating chapters. If you’ve ever wondered why “E = −mc²” sounds like science‐fiction, this is your backstage pass to the birth of antiparticles.

Watch on YouTube