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posted by Fnord666 on Tuesday December 06 2016, @06:01AM   Printer-friendly
from the my-cat's-favorite-theory dept.

It's one of the most brilliant, controversial and unproven ideas in all of physics: string theory. At the heart of string theory is the thread of an idea that's run through physics for centuries, that at some fundamental level, all the different forces, particles, interactions and manifestations of reality are tied together as part of the same framework. Instead of four independent fundamental forces -- strong, electromagnetic, weak and gravitational -- there's one unified theory that encompasses all of them. In many regards, string theory is the best contender for a quantum theory of gravitation, which just happens to unify at the highest-energy scales. Although there's no experimental evidence for it, there are compelling theoretical reasons to think it might be true. A year ago, the top living string theorist, Ed Witten, wrote a piece on what every physicist should know about string theoryHere's what that means, translated for non-physicists.


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  • (Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Tuesday December 06 2016, @08:49AM

    by maxwell demon (1608) on Tuesday December 06 2016, @08:49AM (#437583) Journal

    I note that last link is to Forbes. IIRC, Forbes is a magazine catering to people obsessed with the acquisition of money.

    Which raises the question: How does string theory help with the acquisition of money?

    --
    The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 06 2016, @09:15AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 06 2016, @09:15AM (#437593)

    Which raises the question: How does string theory help with the acquisition of money?

    It's untestable yet sells books.

    • (Score: 4, Interesting) by VLM on Tuesday December 06 2016, @02:15PM

      by VLM (445) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday December 06 2016, @02:15PM (#437701)

      It's untestable yet sells books.

      Not bad AC but I'll see your sarc and raise you "they believe in technical analysis".

      There's a pretty strong irrational streak in rich people. A lot of them are into nonsense like astrology or technical analysis or Keynesian economic theory. Its all unscientific numerology with no connection to reality. Some of it is smart people ripping off rich people using math, which is a pretty old game, but some is self delusional on the part of the rich guys.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 06 2016, @04:00PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 06 2016, @04:00PM (#437785)

        You should write a book about it.