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Rethinking Einstein: The end of space-time
NewScientist ^ | 8/9/10 | Anil Ananthaswamy

Posted on 08/09/2010 7:25:58 AM PDT by LibWhacker

Physicists struggling to reconcile gravity with quantum mechanics have hailed a theory – inspired by pencil lead – that could make it all very simple

IT WAS a speech that changed the way we think of space and time. The year was 1908, and the German mathematician Hermann Minkowski had been trying to make sense of Albert Einstein's hot new idea - what we now know as special relativity - describing how things shrink as they move faster and time becomes distorted. "Henceforth space by itself and time by itself are doomed to fade into the mere shadows," Minkowski proclaimed, "and only a union of the two will preserve an independent reality."

And so space-time - the malleable fabric whose geometry can be changed by the gravity of stars, planets and matter - was born. It is a concept that has served us well, but if physicist Petr Horava is right, it may be no more than a mirage. Horava, who is at the University of California, Berkeley, wants to rip this fabric apart and set time and space free from one another in order to come up with a unified theory that reconciles the disparate worlds of quantum mechanics and gravity - one the most pressing challenges to modern physics.

Since Horava published his work in January 2009, it has received an astonishing amount of attention. Already, more than 250 papers have been written about it. Some researchers have started using it to explain away the twin cosmological mysteries of dark matter and dark energy. Others are finding that black holes might not behave as we thought. If Horava's idea is right, it could forever change our conception of space and time and lead us to a "theory of everything", applicable to all matter and the forces that act on...

(Excerpt) Read more at newscientist.com ...


TOPICS: Science
KEYWORDS: anilananthaswamy; einstein; electrogravitics; gravity; horava; mechanics; physics; quantum; science; space; stringtheory; time
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1 posted on 08/09/2010 7:26:01 AM PDT by LibWhacker
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To: LibWhacker

bump


2 posted on 08/09/2010 7:27:00 AM PDT by tophat9000 (.............................. BP + BO = BS ...........................Formula for a disaster...)
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To: LibWhacker

Particle Physics gives me a hadron.

Sometimes I think being smart enough to think about subjects like this beyond the realm of just understanding would be a great burden.


3 posted on 08/09/2010 7:30:40 AM PDT by IamConservative (You older gentleman ever sit on your testicles? WOW, that hurts!!)
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To: IamConservative

How did that electron meet up with that proton in the first place, and where did THEY come from?


4 posted on 08/09/2010 7:35:19 AM PDT by Shady (1)
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To: LibWhacker

OK, I’ve read the article ... now my head hurts.


5 posted on 08/09/2010 7:35:19 AM PDT by tx_eggman (Liberalism is only possible in that moment when a man chooses Barabas over Christ.)
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To: IamConservative
Sometimes I think being smart enough to think about subjects like this beyond the realm of just understanding would be a great burden.

Don't I know it.

6 posted on 08/09/2010 7:41:40 AM PDT by Richard Kimball (We're all criminals. They just haven't figured out what some of us have done yet.)
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To: Richard Kimball

It is a burden.


7 posted on 08/09/2010 7:43:24 AM PDT by cripplecreek (Remember the River Raisin! (look it up))
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To: LibWhacker

We have all heard that Einstein determined that space and time were actually aspects of the same thing: Spacetime. And we’ve all seen the “world-line” funnels, and the super-C forbidden action zones and suchlike, so we know in an important sense, space IS time.

Since from the Science of econimics we also know that time is money, does it follow that space, therefore is money?

[Another but related subject:]
My former partner was fond of observing that, “time is money, but it ain’t cash.”


8 posted on 08/09/2010 7:47:27 AM PDT by William of Barsoom (In Omnia, Paratus)
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To: tx_eggman
"OK, I’ve read the article ... now my head hurts."
What part don't you understand there pal >

9 posted on 08/09/2010 7:48:17 AM PDT by mainsail that ("A man will fight harder for his interests than for his rights" - Napoleon Bonaparte)
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To: LibWhacker

I expect that the String Theory Lobby will not be happy with this development. Personally I like it since it is testable, a feature that seems to be lacking in ST.


10 posted on 08/09/2010 7:48:46 AM PDT by InterceptPoint
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To: LibWhacker

General Theory ver. 2.0!


11 posted on 08/09/2010 7:53:14 AM PDT by bigbob
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To: LibWhacker; SunkenCiv

the list ping


12 posted on 08/09/2010 7:55:03 AM PDT by stefanbatory (Insert witty tagline here)
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To: LibWhacker; Constitution Day; Lazamataz
Freepers have known for years that space/time is not where the real mysteries reside. It is well known on this site that the real answers will be found in the mǿǿse/cheese continuum.

Ask Laz or C.D.

13 posted on 08/09/2010 8:01:32 AM PDT by Mad Dawgg (If you're going to deny my 1st Amendment rights then I must proceed to the next one...)
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To: Mad Dawgg
"the mǿǿse/cheese continuum"


14 posted on 08/09/2010 8:04:51 AM PDT by paulycy (Demand Constitutionality: Marxism is Evil.)
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To: LibWhacker

I don’t think GR and Quantum mechanics can be reconciled by such tricks. We’re missing some facts, some kind of measurement needed to reconcile the two theories.


15 posted on 08/09/2010 8:08:10 AM PDT by TheThinker (Communists: taking over the world one kooky doomsday scenario at a time.)
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To: Mad Dawgg
Freepers have known for years that
space/time is not where the real mysteries reside.

timetravel....HA! HA!
staying on FR over two hours....real time travel!


16 posted on 08/09/2010 8:14:23 AM PDT by skinkinthegrass (Zer0 to the voters: "Here's my DeathCARE Plan"...now....just die (quicky), please. :^)
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To: Shady

Two hydrogen atoms walk into a bar.

One says, ‘I think I’ve lost an electron.’

The other says ‘Are you sure?’

The first says, ‘Yes, I’m positive.’


17 posted on 08/09/2010 8:15:21 AM PDT by mikrofon (It's all about Chemistry...)
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To: LibWhacker

Oddly enough, the value of this idea is less that it might provide a great theory, than that it challenges existing theory, and forces its reexamination.

This is the underlying problem with such theories. As soon as they are accepted, they become barriers, like walls. All you can do is to build up the wall further. You cannot transcend it without destroying it. Fortunately, the taller a wall gets, the less stable it becomes, contributing to its own destruction.

And this is a great general theory of knowledge, by the way.

As far as the subject goes, I rather like the idea of space-time, and I think that this theory gives it short shrift, in the quest to discover the gravity particle, which may or may not exist.

Just because mass and gravity affect time-space doesn’t mean they are the same things. In fact, it implies that mass and gravity transcend time-space, and affect space-time so strongly that it is bent into their mass and gravity dimension.


18 posted on 08/09/2010 8:23:29 AM PDT by yefragetuwrabrumuy
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To: mainsail that

19 posted on 08/09/2010 8:28:04 AM PDT by mikrofon ("That's my Theory, and I'm sticking to it!")
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To: IamConservative
"Particle Physics gives me a hadron."

You should be pants'd for saying that.

20 posted on 08/09/2010 8:33:38 AM PDT by fieldmarshaldj (~"This is what happens when you find a stranger in the Amber Lamps !"~~)
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