Posted on 02/11/2002 7:11:08 AM PST by dead
by JR Minkel with additional reporting by George Musser
 Images: after animation by Paul Steinhardt A UNIVERSAL CYCLE of birth and rebirth occurs every trillion years or so, according to one new cosmology. Big bangs result when two 10-dimensional "branes" collide (1) and expand (2) and then collide again (4). In this scenario, our universe (3) marks just one phase in this infinite cycle. |
Some questions are disquieting because they can be answered in only one of two, equally mind-boggling ways. For instance, are we the sole intelligent beings in the universe or will we find others? Another discomforting doozy is this: did the universe begin at some remote time in the past or was it always here?
The big bang clearly marks some sort of first. That fearsome flash of energy and expansion of space set in motion everything our eyes and telescopes can see today. But on its own, the big bang theory would leave us in a curved universe where matter and energy aren't well mixed. In fact, we now know that space-time is flat and that galaxies and radiation are evenly distributed throughout. To shore up the big bang theory, cosmologists proposed that the universe began with a burst of exponential expansion from a single uniform patch of space, whose stamp remains on the cosmos to this day. Such inflationary cosmologies have worked so well they've crowded out all the competition.
During this past year, however, one group of researchers has started to challenge that idea's preeminence, though the field of cosmology has yet to be swept up with the new approach. Drawing on some cutting-edge but unproven notions in particle physics, the challengers interpret the big bang as a violent clash between higher-dimensional objects. In the latest installment to the saga, the authors of this interpretation have found a way to turn that single clash into a never-ending struggle that rears its fiery head every trillion years or so, making our universe just one phase in an infinite cycle of birth and rebirth.
Such cyclic ideas are not new. In the 1930s, the late Richard Tolman at the California Institute of Technology wondered what would happen if a closed universe--in which all matter and energy are ultimately compacted in a big crunch--were to survive its closure and burst forth again. Unfortunately, as Tolman realized, the universe would gather entropy during each new cycle; to compensate, it would have to grow every time like a runaway snowball. And just as a snowball has to begin at some point in time, so too would such a universe.
Then in the 1960s, physicists proved that a big crunch too must culminate in a singularity--a point stuffed with infinite matter and heat--where general relativity breaks down. The laws of physics are thus up for grabs. "The idea of a cyclic universe has been around for a long time," says Andreas Albrecht of the University of California at Davis, a co-inventor of inflation, "and it has always been plagued by a fundamental problem: what physics causes the collapsing universe to bounce back into the expanding phase?"
String-ularity
 FIRST STRING. String theory has spawned more than one attempt to do away with the big bang singularity. Read about it here. |
One potential way of getting around that problem is by supposing that elementary particles such as electrons, photons and quarks are really just manifestations of tiny strings of energy jiggling in higher dimensions. The thing is, such a string theory requires the universe to have at least ten dimensions, as opposed to the usual three in space and one in time that we perceive. "In string theory you learn one thing--you are in higher dimensions," says string theorist Burt Ovrut of the University of Pennsylvania. "Then the question is where does our real world come from. That's a damn good question."
Paving the way for an answer in 1995 were Petr Horava, then at Princeton University, and Ed Witten of Princeton's Institute for Advanced Studies, who showed that strings could also exist in a more fundamental, eleven-dimensional theory. They collapsed one of these dimensions mathematically into a miniscule line, yielding an eleven-dimensional space-time, flanked on either side by two ten-dimensional membranes, or branes, colorfully dubbed "end of the world" branes. One brane would have physical laws like our own universe. From there, Ovrut and colleagues reasoned that six of those ten dimensions could be made extremely small, effectively hiding them from everyday view and leaving the traditional four dimensions of space and time.
Early in 2001, cosmologists Justin Khoury and Paul Steinhardt of Princeton, another inflationary pioneer, Neil Turok of the University of Cambridge and Ovrut put their branes to work on the big bang. By turning back the clock in string theory, they found that as our universal brane passed through its starting singularity in reverse, it went suddenly from a state of intense but finite heat and density to one that was cold, flat and mostly empty. In the process, it shed another kind of brane into the eleven-dimensional gap. Run forward in time, the big bang appeared as nothing more than two branes smacking into each other like cymbals. They christened this process the ekpyrotic model, after the ancient Greek "conflagration" cosmology wherein the universe is born in and evolves from a fiery explosion.
Without a better understanding of the singularity in string theory, however, the group could not study what would happen as our brane expands after the collision; the model only provided for a contracting universe. Then later last year, the group discovered in collaboration with Nathan Seiberg of the Institute for Advanced Study that the singularity could be interpreted as a collision between the two "end of the world" branes, in which only the gap dimension separating them shrinks down to zero for an instant. "So what looks sort of disastrously singular, when you describe it as a brane collision, is not very singular at all," Turok explains. This scenario remains a conjecture, Seiberg notes, but is mathematically identical to the description of the big bang singularity in general relativity.
The ekpyrotic model had seemed a little contrived up to this point, notes Alan Guth of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, another author of inflation. The pre-bang universe had to be dark, flat and infinite, seemingly by fiat. But why should it have begun in such a state? The answer, according to the latest work from Steinhardt and Turok, has to do with dark energy, the force that is driving the galaxies apart at ever-increasing speeds.
Drained Branes
 MODERN COSMOLOGY is a relatively new invention. View a history of some of the key events relating to string and inflationary cosmologies here. |
As the universe accelerates, it will become harder for light to travel between distant corners of space. Over time, galaxies will become isolated from their neighbors; stars will wink out; black holes will evaporate quantum mechanically into radiation; even that radiation will be diluted in a sea of space. The universe could end up much as the ekpyrotic model suggests it should appear before the big bang.
Steinhardt and Turok accordingly have proposed that the dark energy, combined with the milder singularity of the ekpyrotic model, provides a tidy way of setting up a cyclic universe. Our brane and its counterpart would bounce off of each other as usual, but instead of going their separate ways, they would smack each other again and again as if connected by a spring. This attractive force between branes would in fact be a special case of the kind of force that inflationary cosmologies posit to explain the early universe's blowup.
The branes' oscillating motion would work to pump space into our universe like a bellows, explaining the acceleration that we see today. So "when you ask why is the universe the way it is," Turok explains, "well it's because it has to be that way in order to repeat the next time around." And because each brane is already infinitely large and flat, there would be no first cycle to worry about.
The model is intriguing in drawing the ultimate link between early inflation and the current acceleration of the universe, Albrecht remarks, but "the case would be a lot more compelling if they were able to really show that a cyclic universe is possible." Guth is also unmoved. He explains that although he awaits the day when cosmology merges with string theory, he expects inflation to be that cosmology. In general, not all physicists are convinced that colliding branes can generate the small fluctuations in matter and energy density that inflation neatly resolves. Such minute variations in these quantities are required to explain the way in which stars and galaxies clump together and the detailed properties of the cosmic microwave background radiation.
In the ekpyrotic model, the necessary fluctuations are supposed to arise as the branes ripple quantum mechanically, so that different areas would strike each other and take off expanding first. The ekpyrotic camp is convinced these ripples can generate the exact variations we see today. "I think it's surprising how well this model works in terms of reproducing everything we see and yet being so different," Steinhardt remarks. "That's quite shocking and I think important because we thought we were converging toward something that was a unique cosmic story."
But the singularity remains as another hurdle. Despite the recent advance, no one is certain whether features such as brane ripples could actually pass unmolested from big crunch to bang. "What happens at the singularity?" Seiberg ponders. "This is a big open question." So although the singularity in string theory may be, as Turok says, the "mildest possible" one, it is still a wild card.
The dealing isn't done, however, making it too soon to say if colliding branes will hold or fold. Perhaps it will attract new players with even more imaginative ideas. "I happen to think the cyclic model is a real intriguing one," Steinhardt says. "It has a lot of new ingredients that people haven't had a chance to play with. When they play they might find other interesting things that we missed." Or not.
RELATED LINKS:
Animation of the cyclic model from Paul Steinhardt
Yes, that's possible; but in most cases the hypotheses which are tossed out by Occham's Razor are not on an equal footing. They are tossed out because there is no need for them when a simpler hypothesis is providing an explanation.
So he's the source of this ---"It's like deja vu all over again."
There's an Inigo Montoya quote in here somewhere.
Actually, all this does is ignore the question. It is really no different than chanting a dogma about a deity that "always existed"; hence one need not explain where the deity came from.
Proposing a temporally infinite series of Universes is essentially the same as throwing up our hands and saying we have no idea where they originated.
The BB at least has to come to grips with the question; some may not like the answer, others may complain that we don't know enough details about the answer, but at least it doesn't hide from the question.
You must concentrate, Grasshopper. Think deeply. The truth will come to you.
I know, I know. But it's so close to Labor Day that I'm treating the already too-long weekend as another combo holiday, like Presidents Day. Your lost organ will be remembered, along with Sam Gompers and the Ladies Garment Workers. But don't dispair. I'm told that your holiday is celebrated as a stand-alone day in Tonga, where -- for reasons not fully explained -- the natives regard you as a god and the young ones sing of your exploits.
But Master, how can I concentrate when I am up to my @ss in an infinite sea of Turtle Turds?
Is celebrated with ritualistic Gall Bladder Sacrifices?
The correct email address is Uran@ass.com. (I can mention that celestial orb at any provocation.)
I won't even ask how it is that you know this.
;-)
I'm the spitting image of their underworld diety, Cthulhu. OK, the resemblance isn't that strong but I can spit almost as far.
I have always wondered about this, what if the universe is just a perpetual series of reruns? And many many billions of year in the future, as has been in the past, I will be typing these exact words again?
You might want to check out the article I posted. Best I've seen in a long time.
Then you should remember the answer.
A Recycled Universe (the infinite cycle in which our current ...
String theory has spawned more than one attempt to do away with the Big bang ...
the thing is, Such A String theory requires the Universe to have at least ...
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/fr/625770/posts
[related on FR, from Google]
Keyword
In its original, simplified form, circa The mid-1980s, String Theory held that
... December 7, 2004 String Theory, at 20, Explains it all (or not) by DENNIS ...
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/keyword?k=stringtheory
Before the Big Bang [Free Republic]
the cosmological solutions of string theory possess this same symmetry, ...
string theory therefore suggests that the universe underwent A phase of ...
http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a393c23e60d10.htm
Physicists Detect Elusive Tau Neutrino, Ending Two-Decade Search ...
I'm not A physicist either, But my understanding of string theory is that It's very
... if I remember correctly, in string theory, matter is described by ...
http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a39776fab182e.htm
Quantum laser turns electron wave into memory--or, how many bits ...
it IS A great read, explained In easy terms that covers the evolution of particle
thory, relativity, Quantum mechanics, and string theory. ...
http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a39af50295e3f.htm
Before the Big Bang [Free Republic]
at their heart Is string theory, the idea that the fundamental building blocks
... string theory has excited theorists in the past few years although It has ...
http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a3ad34a4206ed.htm
More Problems for Evolution: RNA World Theory Doesn't Hold Up ...
Frankly, the super-string theory is a thorn in my side. ... The existing super-string
theory does not meet this mark, it is outside the layperson’s ability ...
http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a3b687a014aaa.htm
Physics looks for new Einstein as nature rewrites laws of universe
this is just an outgrowth of supersymmetric string theory. It's not that big of
A deal. 8 Posted on 09/09/2001 1:18:27 PM PDT by jimkress ...
http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a3b9bcb9856fe.htm
Earth Punctured By Tiny Cosmic Missles
I believe It's involved in super string Theory." Yup. I've read 'stuff' like that
too. Basically, they're traveling away from each other at about 9/10's ...
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/682006/posts
Peering Over Einstein's Shoulders
string theory is not advanced enough to say at what point, exactly, special
relativity would break down or By how much, however. and for the most part, ...
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/709347/posts
Postmodernism Disrobed
This has been verified by reference to string theory in cosmological studies.
Reality comes in little pieces and blinks in and out of existence. ...
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/712100/posts
Quantum entanglement stronger than suspected
... To: snopercod. I am linking the idea that some of these extra dimensions in the
string theory might be large enough to be measured in the lab, large enough to ...
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/717896/posts
Einstein's relativity theory hits a speed bump
string theory, M-theory and all these other sexy Topics ... ... if one looks at
Supersymmetric string theory and its multidimensional representation of ...
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/730930/posts
Earth's magnetic field 'boosts gravity'
their work is based on theories such as String theory that try to unify all the
forces, including electromagnetism and gravity, by invoking the existence of ...
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/755763/posts
Did physists just mathematicall prove the existence of God?
"they have the pious hope that string theory will uniquely determine all the ...
according to string theory, he pointed out, the laws of physics that we ...
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/778662/posts
String Theory, Universal Mind, and the Paranormal (Physics has hit ...
A model consistent with String Theory is proposed for so-called Paranormal ...
String Theory is pretty much the only game in town for mainstream physicists ...
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1032771/posts
Astronomy Picture of the Day 01-07-04
"and then We had a little Chat about quantum physics and string theory," Elachi
joked. "Needless to say, the NASA Administrator, Sean O'Keefe, ...
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1053021/posts
Subatomic Tracking Finds Clues to the Unseen Universe
which would make the Article even more interesting because It would confirm not
Only the dark matter But the additional dimensions string theory predicts. ...
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1054893/posts
The big question: how long is a piece of string theory? (can we ...
string theory has been enormously beguiling, and occupies The attention of ...
so does this mean physicists should give up string theory and other attempts ...
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1084377/posts
INFORMATION PARADOX SOLVED? IF SO, BLACK HOLES ARE "FUZZBALLS"
According to string theory, all the fundamental particles of the universe -- protons,
... We cannot rely on string theory alone, because it excludes brass, ...
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1088380/posts
Dark matter could be light
In string theory — so named because it describes elementary particles as tiny
vibrating strings — the ordinary world is often envisioned as a ...
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1099681/posts
Cosmologists claim Universe has been forming and reforming for ...
Steinhardt and Turok draw on The emerging science of string theory. ... When applied
to Big things like cosmology, string theory invokes weird mathematical ...
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1106621/posts
Dismantling Space and Time [Review of book by Brian Greene]
I have a "String theory" too....hmmmm...better not. ... that is an interesting
hypothesis, but how does the String theory fit into all of this? ...
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1171922/posts
Scientists zero in on why time flows in one direction
... again. Gravity is not explained in detail by Newton's inverse square law,
but 11 dimensional string theory may do the trick. 258 ...
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1258153/posts
The Patent Clerk's Legacy [Einstein]
... thinking about a five-dimensional universe, a proposal that intrigued Einstein in
his own search for a unified theory [see "The String Theory Landscape," by ...
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1285906/posts
String Theory, at 20, Explains It All (or Not)
By uniting all the forces, string theory had the potential of achieving the ...
In the last 20 years, string theory has become a major branch of physics. ...
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1296277/posts
Shiing-Shen Chern, 93, Innovator in New Geometry, Is Dead
And thanks for your contributions to the String Theory thread. 5 posted on
12/07/2004 11:59:36 AM PST by snarks_when_bored ...
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1296301/posts
String Theory, at 20, Explains It All (Are There 10 Dimensions Of ...
By uniting All the forces, String Theory had the potential Of achieving the ...
String Theory has produced no predictions confirmed By observation Beyond ...
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1298550/posts
The Growth of Inflation [On inflationary cosmology, string theory ...
"Cosmology is moving toward describing things in terms of string theory," says Guth.
String theory is an ambitious—but still hypothetical—attempt to combine ...
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1299586/posts
Goedel and Einstein: Friendship and Relativity
This theorem shows what has become the primary hindrance to widespread acceptance
of String Theory. That is that we currently have no way of proving it. ...
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1306304/posts
Strings Attached [interview with physicist Andrew Strominger]
Old-age problem: Richard Feynman didn’t appreciate the string theory ...
String theory, Strominger explains, has shown beautiful connections with various ...
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1306765/posts
God (or Not), Physics and, of Course, Love: Scientists Take a Leap
Physicist and Nobel laureate, Princeton. Is string theory a futile exercise as
physics, as I believe it to be? It is an interesting mathematical specialty ...
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1314547/posts
Most Powerful Eruption in the Universe Discovered
I thought that the string theory had been discredited. ... I'm familiar with the
string theory conjectures to which you refer, but I can't say whether your ...
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1315425/posts
What Was Here Before the Beginning? [Big Bang, Cosmology]
Matsos: Are you alluding to string theory? Does this theory shed new light on
multiple ... That's one of the many ideas opened up by string theory. ...
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1315656/posts
Chance and necessity do not explain the origin of life
There are several flavors of String Theory. The number of dimensions varies ...
Isolating the best flavor of String Theory, testing it in the real world, ...
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1316020/posts
In search of hidden dimensions
String theory emerged in the 1980s as a way to answer questions that still ...
In the case of string theory, the principle is invoked only to explain known ...
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1317261/posts
String fellows - [interview with string theorist Edward Witten]
In his role as de facto scientist-in-chief of string theory, Witten, the Charles
Simonyi ... "Critics of string theory say that it might be too big a step. ...
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1325427/posts
Escape from the universe - [wild, but fun, speculations from ...
Entropy" "String Theory", "Other Dimensions", "Dark Forces(73%) vs. Life", "Yin
Yang Theory", etc. Seems as though there are opposite forces everywhere at ...
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1325459/posts
Finding common ground between God and evolution ("Theory is ...
String theory!! You mean the one that just added another dimension so that it
doesn't come, ahem, untied? (It is now up to 12 dimensions! ...
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1328529/posts
Where Does Visible Light Come From?
at least the Author admitted our ignorance instead of appealing to the un-evidenced
and unnecessary faith of brane theory, multiverse, string theory, ...
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1328632/posts
Moon measurements might explain away dark energy
Taking inspiration from string theory, which proposes the existence of ...
Though the nine thousand dimensions of string theory are just about as bad! ;-) ...
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1347416/posts
Quark soup may cause cosmic flashes
are there string stars -- as in string theory -- so dense that the quarks break
down into strings? 1 Posted on 02/24/2005 12:17:47 AM PST by LibWhacker ...
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1349981/posts
State of the Cosmos Address Offered
the union of String theory and cosmology is barely past its honeymoon, ...
String theory, From its inception, has been a very well-constrained mathematical ...
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1350178/posts
Leaking Gravity May Explain Cosmic Puzzle
Dvali borrows from string theory, which states that there are extra, hidden
dimensions ... string theory suggests that gravitons -- hypothetical elementary ...
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1353071/posts
The Next Einstein? Applicants Welcome
string theory is one, as yet unproven, attempt at such a quantum gravity theory,
... string theory produces no testable predictions and does not have any ...
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1353584/posts
Finding the Ultimate Theory of Everything
the problem with string Theory is that the strings are fantastically smaller ...
string Theory has long been criticised as that which makes no observable ...
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1354343/posts
Teach the controversy [Creationism thru the back door]]
Physics classes manage to get along just fine without getting into the deep
mathematical arguments behind string theory - why should biology be different? ...
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1360637/posts
'Theory of everything' tying researchers up in knots
String theory is not without its critics in the physics community. ... Woit,
who's quoted in the article, detests both string theory and the effects it's ...
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1363783/posts
Was Einstein right when he said he Was wrong?
No theoretical model, not even the most modern, such as supersymmetry or string
Theory, is able to explain the presence of this mysterious dark energy in ...
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1364170/posts
In from the cold (cold fusion heating up again)
if you took a hot fusion or string theory initiative and gathered together their
worst critics and presented them with a 15-page document and allowed for ...
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1369416/posts
'Call to Arms' on Evolution [The sleeper wakes?]
while it appears that modern string Theory (The ellusive Theory of everything
which Einstein had long sought) will reconcile these contradictions, ...
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1371152/posts
Plenty of Earths await discovery
String theory and alternate dimensions may be The answer.. ... String theory may
someday explain alleged UFO's as well.. Dimensional travellers, rather than ...
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1377840/posts
How Einstein may have got the theory of relativity wrong
Professor Witten is one of the principal authors of string theory, the framework
with which physicists have sought to unify quantum mechanics with gravity. ...
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1381866/posts
The Big Lab Experiment Was our universe created by design?
even The "Big Bang" Or "String theory" explain a "beginning" which had a First
Cause. consider This, let's say That "Big Bang" is accurate, and you have all ...
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1383194/posts
Why Is HIV So Prevalent in Africa?
all the money for physics goes to string theory (Even though it's 40 years old
and hasn't made a single experimentally testable prediction). ...
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1384591/posts
Atom Smasher Yields 'Perfect Fluid'
does This imply that The string theory version predicting only mini-black holes
are generated at high energies (Instead of exotic particles) is correct? ...
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1386918/posts
Evolution debate turns into debate over intelligent design ...
String theory? all at one time were foolishness but We Keeping pushing beyond
the limits of present day available Knowledge. We always should.. ...
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1394310/posts
The “Cartesian Split” Is a Hallucination; Ergo, We Should Get Rid ...
String theory proponents are in danger of doing this as well. While The concepts
behind String theory are elegant and may show truly great promise, ...
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1421661/posts
US History Is Becoming History
According to string Theory, There Is another dimension only trillionths away ...
string Theory makes me feel like I can pass a string in one ear and out The ...
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1429119/posts
What the HELL is this?
and i have a real hunch on string theory that will rock the physics community.
this was a real find. Thanks again. 23 Posted on 06/28/2005 3:55:58 PM PDT by ...
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1432628/posts
The Mysteries of Mass
for me, The Most exciting aspect of string theory is not only that it may ...
string theory seems able to address The question of why The interactions with ...
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1433919/posts
President Confuses Science and Belief, Puts Schoolchildren at Risk
String theory and the Big Bang are no more easily verified. Simply asking If not
ID, then what organized the universe? is a scientific question, ...
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1456929/posts
Evolution – Impossible to Embarass Its Believers
another cosmologist insists, However, that "string theory possesses a virtue for
which ... Adrian Cho, "string theory Gets Real—Sort of," science (vol. ...
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/1457779/posts
Introduction: The Illusion of Design [Richard Dawkins]
It's related to the number of possible values of parameters in certain string
theory scenarios, with the idea that each choice of parameters might ...
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1535529/posts
Design for Living: A theoretical physicist weighs in on a hot ...
Nor is it the words "string theory"—even though "string theory" is, admittedly,
one of those futuristic-sounding 10-dollar terms, like "chaos theory" or ...
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1555720/posts
Supersymmetry and Parallel Dimensions [profile of Harvard ...
String theory is a model of physics in which building blocks are ... Technology is
coming closer to verifying string theory and Randall’s work. ...
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1556888/posts
Intelligent Design Proponents Distance Themselves from ...
But string theory, for all its elegance, comes with a price. ... In fact, string
theory predicts a universe with nine spatial and one time dimension, ...
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1558256/posts
Geometry may be hard-wired into brain, study shows
Quantum Field Theory and String Theory are currently dancing on the grave.
39 posted on 01/20/2006 8:16:06 AM PST by Netheron ...
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1561469/posts
User Posts
Re String Theory, I discovered this: 'Resolving Contradictions'
http://www.theory.caltech.edu/people/jhs/strings/string16.html Conclusions: (snip) ...
http://www.freerepublic.com/~frednerks/in-forum
User Posts
They're generally not people like Leonard Susskind, a renowned physics professor
at Stanford and a prime architect of string theory. His new book, his first ...
http://www.freerepublic.com/~gobucks/in-forum
While watching the DVD, "The Elegant Universe," I developed another model. Okay, don't laugh.
The ground plane of super strings bouncing around was strangely similar to what a graphic of firing synapses in the brain might look like.
Could superstrings actually be synapses firing in the mind of an . . . uh . . . 'intelligent designer?'
Don't shoot!
And is there a possibility that the superstringthingy is the first form of manifest energy in the continuum, different than electricity or gravity, but serving as a matrix which establishes the 'dna' (mechanics) of the micro universe and macro universe?
Unifying all three aspects.
How about we multiply space x energy in motion (matter) x time (distance) to arrive at the total volume of the universe.
In that space has three directions, matter has three dimensions, and time has three aspects (past, present, and future), if you remove one of these nine aspects the quantum universe would disappear and become flat, non-measurable and dimension-less.
Maybe the superstring activity is what starts the ball moving and gives impetus to energy in motion (matter) in three limited dimensions, which fit neatly into a three, unlimited direction spacial environment. The motion itself moves and creates distance. The distance is measurable by the yardstick of time.
(Retreats back into bunker.)
Karl Pibram, in a live talk, once blurted out, "maybe the universe is a hologram". There's an old saying from one of the Indian (subcontinent) religions -- "The universe is the dream of the Gods, and the Gods are the dream of man." ;')
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.