chris_mackintosh
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Lafayette, US
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    "For the first time in the history of physics we have a framework with the capacity to explain every fundamental feature upon which the universe is constructed."
    For this reason string theory is sometimes described as possibly being the "theory of everything" (T.O.E.) or the "ultimate" or "final" theory. These grandiose descriptive terms are meant to signify the deepest possible theory of physics—a theory that underlies all others, one that does not require or even allow for a deeper explanatory base.

    -Brian Greene

    Sat, Dec 29, 2007  Permanent link

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    aeonbeat     Sun, Dec 30, 2007  Permanent link
    the one question, the one algorithm, the one pattern, the absolute truth? :)
    Harflimon     Sun, Dec 30, 2007  Permanent link
    The untestable, the make believe, the one great wish of all physicists that only exists in our minds.

    It'd be great if it were true. But it's about as relative as me postulating that the world breaks down into small bubbles that wobble. And from these wobbles comes everything else. Bubble Theory. Believe it.
    chris_mackintosh     Mon, Dec 31, 2007  Permanent link
    A Test for String Theory After All? Or Just PR?

    A letter published this week in Nature is causing a bit of a stir among physicists, with press releases promising that scientists "may have found a laboratory test of the 'untestable' string theory."

    If literally true, this would be huge, Nobel-prize level news, with mind-boggling consequences for our understanding of a radically expanded universe. But while interesting, it's probably none of that.

    The experiment in question comes from the UK's Lancaster University, where a group of low-temperature physicists are studying a real-world phenomenon they believe is an analog for one of the oddest ideas in modern physics.

    In some versions of string theory, our entire universe is described as being embedded on a gigantic "brane" (the term comes from the word "membrane," but think bigger, with more dimensions), which may have counterparts that float through or simply exist in a higher-dimensional space, and might even encounter "antibranes."

    In part because these theoretical constructs would all exist outside the confines of what we think of as our world, these ideas have been viewed as nearly, if not wholly, impossible to test.
    The Lancaster physicist are looking at the problem from an unusual angle, however. Their experiment involves cooling helium-3 isotopes very close to zero degrees Kelvin, where it changes into into a superfluid state. Here it has interesting properties, such as the absence of friction as it flows.

    Then they add a magnetic field, which creates a separate region within the fluid. The interface between these two regions behaves very much like a two-dimensional brane, they say.
    In a press release, the university touts this as a possible "test" for string theory. Nature itself is more cautious on its Web site, calling it a possible "laboratory analogue." String theory critic Peter Woit, a Columbia University mathematical physicist, calls these claims simple "dishonest nonsense."

    It strikes me that this experiment may well be interesting, but that these striking claims risk mistaking an interesting metaphor for actual proof. Analogues, to use Nature's term, can certainly shed light on related issues, but don't serve as hard laboratory proof of anything.

    http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2007/12/a-test-for-stri.html
    Rourke     Thu, Apr 24, 2008  Permanent link
    I like string theory because of the picture it plants in my mind. The metaphor of a multidimensional bubble floating in infinite space really is beautiful.

    Scientists are always talking about models/equations/ideas/theories that have inate beauty. A large part of science is instinctive, the greatest discoveries of our history were made by following hunches to their conclusion.

    Even if string theory ends up as a non-testable model, it still has value because it still has beauty. If it can explain some aspects of reality then it is useful. Just because relativity theory was a better model than Newton's laws, doesn't mean we all forgot Newton overnight.

    Value comes in many forms.
     
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