Iamon_lyme:

> he (quantum) micro is supposed to be the functional building block of the bigger (relativity) macro, we might find a connection if we start looking in the right places

I think the problem is not whether they are connected. Theoretical physicists work on the assumption that there is a connection. However, mathematically (and theoretical physics is in essence mathematics) relativistic quantum mechanics has no exact solutions, and the current theories (such as Hyperstrings) are mere conjectures. There are experiments under way to try to prove that hyperstrings exist, rahter than being mathematical constructs. If that isproven, then physicists can make the claim that relativity and quantum mechanics can be joined in some universal set of physical laws. Well, as with much of theoretical physics, we try to describe the universe, but absolute proofs of certain things (like the Big Bang) elude us because there is no way we can travel back in time to that first moment when the singularity exploded.

We can only wish that we could find exact solutions like Newtonian mechanics offers. Quantum mechanics deals to a great extent with probabilities, rather than certainties. Even something as commonplace like a helium atom cannot be described with an exact (analytic) solution. So physicists resort to approximation methods (like perturbation theory, LCAO, etc.) based on the hydrogen atom, the only atom with an exact solution. Atoms and molecules are "relativistic", meaning that electrons move at a speed high enough that approaches the speed of light and relativity has to be taken into account in the computations. All that physicists and chemists have are approximate solutions.

Some day a mathematical genius like Gauss, Fermat or Descartes will be born, and he/she will find the mathematics that will revolutionize physics. Until then quantum mechanics and relativity remain distant, yet close enough that phsyicists can almost sense the solutions to the problems.