Is This Your Theory or Was Someone Working on It Before You?

Most laws of physics tell us what must happen. Throw a ball in the air and it will come back down. But physicist Chiara Marletto, a Research Fellow at the University of Oxford, says that laws like this only tell us part of the story.

She believes that the rest lies in 'counterfactuals': things that could be.

In her new book, The Science of Can and Can’t (£20, Allen Lane), she explains how these counterfactual properties could solve many of science’s biggest outstanding problems.

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Listen to more episodes of the Science Focus Podcast:

• Prof Avi Loeb on what 'Oumuamua tells us about the problem with modern physics
• Marcus Chown: Does the Big Bang really explain our Universe?
• Dr Douglas Vakoch: Should we try to contact aliens?
• Katie Mack: How will the Universe end?
• Sonia Contera: How will nanotechnology revolutionise medicine?
• Everything You Wanted To Know About… Physics with Jim Al-Khalili

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