Is string theory in trouble?

newscientist.com ^ | 17 December 2005 | Amanda Gefter

[samtheman]

Why are the physical constants exactly the way we find them? Because that's the way they are in the universe we happen to find ourselves in. They are some other way in some other universe.

[atomicpossum]

I've been doing reasearch for my doctoral on g-string theory. Now, if I can just find a school which offers that as a major...

[mtbopfuyn]

According to my paycheck, inflation is bad.

[saganite]

John Kerry won the election in some alternate universe! Scary ;^)

[Ranald S. MacKenzie]

bump for later

[bkepley]

Why do we have to go that route? We still aren't certain that the universe collapses are we? And if it does and recreates forever then the universe we see today would be inevitable.

[Condor51]

***I've been doing research for my doctoral on g-string theory. Now, if I can just find a school which offers that as a major...***

Have you checked the University of Phoenix, they seem to have a Major for everything.

;-)

[Paladin2]

"I've been doing reasearch for my doctoral on g-string theory"

Careful, that could lead to the conversion of singularity.

[cynicom]

You are behind times..Kids in Middle School now meet that as standard requirements, no "doctor" required. Called self help lab.

[voletti]

They are some other way in some other universe.
By definition, there can be no other universe. It would be come a 'multiverse' then. In any case, am pretty mystified by all these abstract goings-on in the physics world nowadays. If something isn't testable, how can we accept it as truth? It would then become an axiom - that which can neither be proved nor disproved - and mathematicians have long known you can play god and create different consistent systems of study just by changing the axioms. We only of course choose the interesting ones. Maybe G-d, if He exists, does the same, eh?

[samtheman]

voletti,

It gets down to semantics. If you look at the bubble of stars we can see with our telescopes and call that "the universe", but consider there are other bubbles out there that we can't see, and call the whole collection of bubbles "the cosmos" (which I think is the way Alan Guth does it), then you get the idea. Other word-choices could be made to get the same idea across.

[samtheman]

We still aren't certain that the universe collapses are we?

Not certain, but things are looking bad for the Big Crunch. Our expansion rate appears (recent observations) too high, and with the cosmological constant (that Einstein himself predicted and then rejected but which now turns out to be there) it will be harder than ever for the measured mass to pull itself all together again.

[Pietro]

ping

[kinsman redeemer]

Ping for when I'm smart.

[meanie monster]

LOL, when i am smart too buudy!

[WarEagle]

I'm convinced that string theory is nothing more than high-fallutin' BS invented by stoned graduate students.

[Flightdeck]

"In any case, am pretty mystified by all these abstract goings-on in the physics world nowadays."

Me, too. I think there's a lot of BS out there now that serves merely to keep people publishing and hence their jobs. I'm going to laugh when the LHC fails to find extra spatial dimensions.

[Flightdeck]

Doesn't the casimir effect prove a non-zero "cosmological constant"?

[CPOSharky]

If something isn't testable, how can we accept it as truth?

It's seldom "truth." It's theory which fits all known data. If the data changes, the theory is modified or a new theory is advanced.

Newtonian physics works just fine for many things. But it doesn't take in account the effects of relativity.

[muawiyah]

In some segment of the multiverse there's undoubtedly a "g-string university".