Phenomenological Quantum Gravity

Abstract

If the history of science has taught us anything, it's that persistence and creativity makes the once impossible possible. It has long been thought experimental tests of quantum gravity are impossible. But during the last decade, several different approaches have been proposed that allow us to test, if not the fundamental theory of quantum gravity itself, so at least characteristic features this theory can have. For the first time we can probe experimentally domains in which quantum physics and gravity cohabit, in spite of our failure so far to make a convincing marriage of them on a theoretical level.

space limited to 3 pages. To appear in Physics in Canada