Something Weird Happens When E=−mc²

Veritasium dives into Paul Dirac’s wild journey from discovering “impossible” negative energy solutions in quantum equations to predicting an anti-universe full of anti-electrons (positrons). We follow the evolution from the flawed Schrödinger and Klein–Gordon equations through Dirac’s genius workaround, which ultimately led to the brain-bending idea that antiparticles might just be particles traveling backwards in time.

Along the way, we meet the enigmatic Dirac himself—“the strangest man in physics”—and explore how his work gave birth to modern particle physics and the real-life discovery of the positron. It’s a rollercoaster of theory, uncertainty principles, archive treasures from FSU and Caltech, and one of the “saddest chapters” in 20th-century science, all served up with Derek Muller’s trademark curiosity and flair.

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