And from an unlikely source:

Although the work of 39 year old Garrett Lisi still has a way to go to convince the establishment, let alone match the achievements of Albert Einstein, the two do have one thing in common: Einstein also began his great adventure in theoretical physics while outside the mainstream scientific establishment, working as a patent officer, though failed to achieve the Holy Grail, an overarching explanation to unite all the particles and forces of the cosmos.

Now Lisi, currently in Nevada, has come up with a proposal to do this. Lee Smolin at the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, describes Lisi's work as "fabulous". "It is one of the most compelling unification models I've seen in many, many years," he says.

"Although he cultivates a bit of a surfer-guy image its clear he has put enormous effort and time into working the complexities of this structure out over several years," Prof Smolin tells The Telegraph.

Not just unusual because he's a surfer, but also because he seems a little old to do something like this, which is supposedly more likely from a younger mind.

This is promising for all those who labour outside "the establishment."

Right. This should give the "Nut Science" community a huge boost.

I hope this works out for a couple reasons:

1. A unifying theory would be really cool

2. If it gains wide acceptance, it would serve as a counter argument to those who say that their work isn't accepted only because they (the ones proposing the new work) are outside the mainstream in science.

The way I see it, there will always be a few holdouts (mainly those most vocal about the previous theories being disproven), but if a new theory is correct, the mainstream community will adopt it pretty quickly.

Creative triumphs can happen at any age. The trick is keeping your mind open and fresh. I would argue that is increasingly difficult in today's science. Consider the history of a friend of mine. She is a biologist, remarkably intelligent and personable. She was granted a B.S. at age 22. The Ph.D. when she was 29. Her postdoctoral studies -- the latest wrinkle -- ended when she was 35. Her first real job -- a research faculty position -- ended when she was 38. The senior faculty person described her as not a team player. That isn't the person I and others know. This kind of ugly behavior drives people from scientific fields -- especially the more independent types.

I find that folks like Gordon Woodcock have better ideas at age 75 than most of the aerospace people in the business do at 30.

The paper called "An Exceptionally Simple Theory of Everything" is available for download in various formats including pdf here. The pdf is about 30 pages and 610 KB in size.

Might make a comment after I've read it and tried to wrap my brain around it ("it's turtles all the way down" is so much simpler hehe) ^_^

("it's turtles all the way down" is so much simpler hehe)

Heh. Until some smart-@$$ asks, "Down to where?"

Down to the next turtle McGehee ^_^