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Columnist and Physics

Why physicists keep trying to get rid of space-time entirely

Physicists are trying to ditch the concept of space-time – the supposed fabric of physical reality. Quantum columnist Karmela Padavic-Callaghan explains why

By Karmela Padavic-Callaghan

6 May 2025

Space-time is considered the fabric of physical reality

Science Photo Library/Alamy

The first time a physicist told me they wanted to get rid of space-time, on a cold January morning earlier this year, I stopped typing my interview notes and clutched my New Scientist mug of tea. Space-time is the very fabric of physical reality – the four-dimensional framework that holds everything in the universe. But now the expert on my computer screen was telling me: “The idea of space-time somehow has to go. The notion of space-time can’t really be a totally fundamental one, and has to be…

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