Garret Lisi, A PHD physicist with no university affiliation, who allegedly spends most of his time surfing in Hawaii or snowboarding in Tahoe, has submitted a 31-page paper for preprint titled “An Incrediby Simple Theory of Everything.” (The poor guy’s webpage is down, but Google’s cache indicates that he’s a burner too.) The paper departs from string theory, the TOE du jour in theoretical physics, and it’s got physicists talking. The inimitable Lee Smolin calls it “one of the most compelling unification models I’ve seen in many, many years,” and the press is branding Lisi a new Einstein.

This brings up the usual brouhaha about the mainstream media picking up scientific papers before peer review, but this time it seems that the blame is on the press, not the scientist.

Sounds like an interesting guy, and I hope for his sake he’s right, because how on earth could he ever live it down if he’s not?