Supposedly, we cannot theoretically measure or conceive of anything smaller than the Planck scale”. That doesn’t mean that a smaller than Plancks scale doesn’t exist. If a smaller scale exists, the physicists may have to reformulate the whole set of equations. Which raises a question...will we ever understand the universe on our own terms?
Is knowledge asymptotic? Ever learning but never coming to the truth?
Any significance that one of the authors of the paper is Ying Yan? Heavy.
Plank's constant is one of those things that make you say 'Where the Hell did that come from?'. It is something that nobody saw coming (as far as I know) but was confirmed by experiments. Its eventual acceptance can be explained by another conjecture from Plank:
A new scientific truth does not triumph by convincing its opponents and making them see the light, but rather because its opponents eventually die and a new generation grows up that is familiar with it ... An important scientific innovation rarely makes its way by gradually winning over and converting its opponents: it rarely happens that Saul becomes Paul. What does happen is that its opponents gradually die out, and that the growing generation is familiarized with the ideas from the beginning: another instance of the fact that the future lies with the youth. — Max Planck, Scientific autobiography, 1950, p. 33, 97 Colloquially, this is often paraphrased as "Science progresses one funeral at a time".