An inaugural lecture given at the University College of Rhodesia & Nyasaland by the Physicist EL Yates on the topical subject The Physical World.Physics is a fundamental science. The purpose of this Inaugural Lecture is to substantiate this statement in one small respect in which I am particularly interested. In case I am accused of arguing from the particular to the general, let me hasten to say right at the beginning that the claim of physics to be a fundamental science is not new and is supported by much more evidence than I can bring in one lecture. I am not producing a thesis, nor a library of theses; this is a single lecture, so I hope I may be forgiven for selecting only a small aspect of physical science in which I have a direct and personal interest— after all, I have been invited to give a lecture to inaugurate the chair which I am honoured to occupy, so this lecture is very much a personal matter
