Riding With the Duke

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Walter Peacock knew from his earliest days that he was not like the other kids. While they talked of growing up to be state troopers, firefighters, and race car drivers, he dreamed of becoming a scientist. And much more. Eventually, he would join the ranks of Alan Guth, Freeman Dyson, and Peter Higgs.

He was never sure where the passion had come from. But he’d always been fascinated by the surrounding universe. Why does water freeze from the top down? And is it true that had it been otherwise, there would be no life on the planet? Are there really extra dimensions? Why is the universe not simply a lot of floating gas?

High school was a debilitating experience. He had few friends, and the girls pretty much never noticed him. He took a cousin to the prom. After graduation he attended the University of Tennessee, where he majored in physics and went on to earn a master’s degree. By then he’d read The Double Helix, A Brief History of Time, Shadows of the Mind, and Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman! Among numerous others. And he’d come to a painful realization: The tangled complexities of his chosen field left him bewildered. How can the same particle be in two places simultaneously? Can space really be bent?

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