VIENNA, March 29, 2012 — An experiment designed to observe quantum interactions at the Planck scale could, if successful, help bridge the gap between quantum mechanics and general relativity. It would also remove the need to rely on high-energy experiments or distant cosmic catastrophes to observe such interactions. Physicists have always sought an elegant way to unify all of physics by developing theories that relate the fundamental forces to each other. Electricity and magnetism were successfully unified in the 1800s, and then reconciled with the weak nuclear force in the 1970s. 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