The reason this is important is that Dirac's equation is misleading.

ECONOMIST: Fundamental physics

So when, in 1928, a British physicist called Paul Dirac solved such an equation relating to the electron, the fact that one answer described the opposite of that particle might have been brushed aside as a curiosity.

ECONOMIST: Fundamental physics

Paul Dirac was a shy, lonely character, who almost refused the 1933 Nobel prize for his famous equation because he feared it would incite too much publicity.

ECONOMIST: Modern scientists: Physical presence | The