Speculating about the Universe as a quantum fluid
"What really seems to turns Murayama on is the problem of explaining why
some forces are long-range and some are short-range. Basically, gravity
reaches out over huge distances. Electromagnetism would reach just as
far, but because there are both negative and positive charges, forces
due to one set of charges tend get screened out by opposite signed
charges. This effectively limits the reach of electromagnetic forces.
Nevertheless, the fundamental distance scaling for the two forces is the
same. The strong and weak nuclear forces are very short range, extending
no further than the width of a nucleus.
There is no fundamental reason for why these forces scale differently
from gravity and electromagnetism. He proposes that the Universe is, in
fact, a quantum fluid, somewhat like a superconductor. How does this
work? The analogy with superconductivity is apt because superconductors
reject magnetic fields. That is, the charges in a superconductor arrange
themselves such that the field lines of a magnetic field get bent around
the super-current. Now, imagine sitting in the superconductor, trying to
make a magnetic field. "
http://arstechnica.com/science/news/...m-universe.ars