Question: how do you find out how the universe works? do you look up results?do you ask peoples opinions and then back that statement up

Tim Hollowood answered on 11 Nov 2013:

Good question because this is really the job description of a theoretical physicist. How does it work: well the scientific community builds up a body of knowledge based on making careful observations. Theorists then take observations and try to explain the patterns in the data. These are the theories. Theories are then used to make predictions, like, for example, Peter Higgs’ theory which predicted the existence of a particle, the Higgs boson (by the way it’s pronounced bozon). But ultimately a theory lives or dies by experiments and Higg’s beautiful prediction was confirmed very recently. A theorist generally works by adding a little bit to an existing theory rather than producing something very radical. But every now and then something truly radical does emerge that Einstein’s theory of relativity or quantum theory.
These lead to huge changes but often take a little time to become accepted because they are so different to the prevailing theories.

I spend a lot of time reading other people’s work and then discussing with my colleagues looking for clues, having ideas and then trying to back them up with mathematical proofs where there are gaps.