Prof. Gabriele Carcassi is a University of Michigan Physicists who became obsessed with a simple question during his training. Where do the mathematics of physics actually come from? They are handed down to us as students as if they were immutable laws of nature… but are they? Or are they simply mathematical transformations that have long ago left the realm of reality and made their home in the spheres of theory? It turns out that we really don’t know where the line between pure theory and physical reality can be drawn! Luckily, Carcassi and his research partner Prof. Christine Aidala have dedicated their time to deciphering what they call the “Assumptions of Physics,” a project which they hope will let them take apart the basic principles of the foundational science and put the whole thing back together again in a way that makes much more sense.