Posted on 01/21/2006 6:16:34 AM PST by mlc9852
The fundamental particles of the universe that physicists have identified—electrons, neutrinos, quarks, and so on—are the "letters" of all matter. Just like their linguistic counterparts, they appear to have no further internal substructure. String theory proclaims otherwise. According to string theory, if we could examine these particles with even greater precision—a precision many orders of magnitude beyond our present technological capacity—we would find that each is not pointlike but instead consists of a tiny, one-dimensional loop. Like an infinitely thin rubber band, each particle contains a vibrating, oscillating, dancing filament that physicists have named a string.
(Excerpt) Read more at pbs.org ...
They could be just stringing us along - there is a lot we don't know, but we surely know more than we did 100 or even 10 years ago!
Keep on investigating and searching and somebody, someday, will figure it out, maybe.
I saw that NOVA show on String Theory and thought it was excellent. Clear and well-presented.
It appeared to be a new format for the show -- where they actually fit some CONTENT into the hour for a change.
I saw a NOVA program about string theory but it was a couple of years ago, I think. Really interesting theory. There is just so much we don't know yet.
Is String Theroy for real? I'm a fraid knot?
Cute :)
Others have tried to argue that developments such as chaos theory tell us that new kinds of laws come into play when the level of complexity of a system increases.
Chaos theory seems to apply fairly well to government...
Same with alternate universes. In order for God to make good out of evil, in order for God to exonerate bad choices (I know I'm saying this wrong), ALL realities MUST exists!
If every action has a reaction, then every action and reaction must have an outcome Somehow.
String theory supports this, IMO, because it deals with the reality of action..not the theory.
I know, Go ahead...
Their overinflated egos is my guess. Sc ientists are limited by their humanness.
On another note, good to see you, mlc..HI! How are ya?
I'm fine - thanks. A little dreary here today but not really cold. How about you?
Is String Theory Even Wrong?It is best described by Wolfgang Pauli's famous phrase, "It's not even wrong." String theory not only makes no predictions about physical phenomena at experimentally accessible energies, it makes no precise predictions whatsoever. Even if someone were to figure out tomorrow how to build an accelerator capable of reaching the astronomically high energies at which particles are no longer supposed to appear as points, string theorists would be able to do no better than give qualitative guesses about what such a machine might show. At the moment string theory cannot be falsified by any conceivable experimental result... With such a dramatic lack of experimental support, string theorists often attempt to make an aesthetic argument, professing that the theory is strikingly "elegant" or "beautiful."
by Peter Woit
American Scientist
March-April 2002
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