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Letter: Going camping with a theoretical physicist

Published 25 March 2026

From Adrian Smith, Addingham, West Yorkshire, UK

I have thought of an analogy that best describes the confusing situation in cosmology today. Imagine going on a camping trip with a new tent. You haven’t had time to practice erecting it, so you assemble the tent from the rather limited instructions. On completion, you find there are poles sticking out and bits of fly flapping all over the place. If you are a theoretical physicist, you try to bend the poles to align and batten down the offending loose canvas with extra ropes. Most ordinary people would just take the tent down and start again (7 March, p 30).

The moral of the story is, don’t go camping with a theoretical physicist!

Issue no. 3588 published 28 March 2026

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