Posted on 12/18/2005 5:46:34 AM PST by samtheman
Is string theory in trouble?Excellent.I'm a frayed knot
I thought a couple of years ago scientists were puzzled by measurements that the expansion of the universe was speeding up, accelerating.That's the way I understand it. It turns out Einstein was right when he predicted a cosmological constant. Even though later he back-tracked and called it "my greatest mistake".
How is the belief in alternate universes different than the belief in a deity?
The 'saddle' theory rings a bell, though. Make it a saddle that saddles the bottom and sides of the horse as well and you have a torus-like structure -- the old jelly donut theory.
Just watched the DVD Nova series on "The Elegant Universe" the other night. Very colorful and thought it presented some great models.
I can't add anything here, just making an observation.
I think space and matter only defines two aspects of the universe. Add time and you have a tri-universe, each aspect directly related and an emanation of the other.
So add them up and what do you get? Space + Matter + Time = 3 separate but unrelated units.
But multiplied, as Space x Matter x Time = the entire volume = 1 triuniverse.
> Is string theory in trouble?
It always had been hanging by a thread.
Cosmology theories have changed radically more than once
during my lifetime, and may do so several times more.
My, these physicists are full of themselves, aren't they? Somebody's pet mathematical model is in trouble, and that changes the very nature of science.
Only it doesn't. The nature of science is to destroy models like string theory. That is how progress is made.
What's more, the demise of string theory will have no repercussions at all outside a few esoteric realms of physics. Chemists, biologists, geologists, and engineers won't even notice it is gone.
"But in my heart of hearts, I just don't believe that life could exist in the interior of a star, for instance, or in a black hole. "
It doesn't seem likely to me, either, yet life has been discovered on earth in places that a few years ago would have seemed inhospitable, like undersea sulfurous volcanic vents, antarctic ice.
http://www.livescience.com/animalworld/050207_extremophiles.html
So I wouldn't rule out other places in the universe. We learn more surprising and amazing stuff every day.
On a slightly related note, I've wondered if at the most basic level we have just zeros and ones. In other words, maybe matter/energy exists in just on/off or left/right or whatever 2 states. Maybe all the subatomic particles reduce to 2 opposite choices at the lowest level. This idea appeals to me as a mathematician/programmer. Occam's Razor?
I would tend to agree but for a slightly different reason. If there are no other universes, that would tend to suggest that the event that created this universe was a one time event in all of eternity. It just doesn't have the right feel. The concept of eternity itself suggests that all things are possible and in some sense a concurrent reality.
multi-echo ping.. from a house of mirrors..
Depends on the deity..
We're doomed unless we act quickly.
Chris Woit, is that you?
Interesting point. I hadn't thought of that.
the demise of string theory will have no repercussions at all outside a few esoteric realms of physics. Chemists, biologists, geologists, and engineers won't even notice it is goneTrue. And it won't change the price of a cup of coffee, either. And I know there are a lot of physcists who are probably full of themselves and not much else. And I know that a lot of this is mere speculation. But I still like thinking about it.
Or, perhaps the boundary of the bubble of our universe/instance of a multiverse allows the gravity beyond to pass through the boundary to rip matter out of nothing at the center of our bubble. Perhaps there never was a Big Bang. It was the Supper Suck. Remember, you heard it hear first on Free Republic.
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YEC INTREP - not a thread of physical evidence available
Wait...wait...wait... there's a line. Get back in line! :)
I think I provided a model for that phenomena a few years ago here. Well, at least similar. Picture this:
A ball of ice.
Then aim three lasers from the 'outside' of the ball so that their path tri-sects at the center of the ball. Each beam not strong enough to melt anything until they meet at the center.
Ice, one of the three forms of matter, gas, liquid and solid.
Heat transforms the trisection into water and steam which gathers in the center of the sphere because of attraction, assisted by the point of vacuum which draws, SUCKS everything to the center. That's why planets are round, leaving seemingly empty space between the perimeter of the center mass (which used to a solid) and the inside of the perimeter of the remaining ice ball.
A ball of softer stuff within a continually hollowing ball.
That's as far as I could explain it. Then my brain froze up.
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