M-theory

dusters · Jul 29, 2014

Hello folks.

Is there anyone reading scientific papers on progress in this quantum physics field? Maybe someone from Harvard or Berkeley? Can you link me to the sites, or should i search the stuff by the names?

So far:

S. Hawking, Greene, Lisa Randall, M. Kaku (seems like he isn't actively working in labs, just being more of a entertainer), Witten, Maldacena.

Browd · Jul 29, 2014

Seems like pretty impenetrable stuff to me:

http://www.physics.princeton.edu/~steinh/phoenix5.pdf
http://www.physics.princeton.edu/~steinh/Entropic1.pdf
http://wwwphy.princeton.edu/~steinh/dynamicalselection.pdf
http://wwwphy.princeton.edu/~steinh/sciencecyc.pdf (from 2002)

Recent String Theory symposium at Princeton: http://wwwphy.princeton.edu/strings2014/Talk_titles.shtml

dusters · Jul 29, 2014

Big thanks. The stuff is easy if you spend 16+ hours per day reading about it.

uppi · Jul 30, 2014

dusters said:
seems like he isn't actively working in labs, just being more of a entertainer

No one working on M-theory is working in any lab. It is mostly mathematics with no clear connection to physics yet.

dusters · Jul 30, 2014

It was a figure of speech. What i want to know, if there is much value watching M. Kaku besides entertainment.

peter grimes · Aug 1, 2014

Is Kaku considered a solid source? I thought he was not really respected any more, but I'm not sure why I think that...

El_Machinae · Aug 1, 2014

No, I don't like Kaku. He's too much of an entertainer, and he breaks one of the cardinal rules of science popularization, he explains things wrong when he dumbs things down.

An expert should be able to listen to the layman's version of an explanation and have his only objection be "well, that's a bit incomplete". When Kaku explains something, dumbed down, it sounds like he doesn't understand the more complex version of the idea.

warpus · Aug 5, 2014

Isn't Kaku the guy who took quantum physics and has tried to make it all hippy-like and crap? Get around the drum circle and bring the flip flops and the marijuana? And sing songs about Schroedinger's cat? That's the guy? Cause if so, I don't like him.

El_Machinae · Aug 5, 2014

No! I know who you mean. That's the "woo woo" guy. Kaku is the String Theorist that went a bit too low trying to popularize science. "Science of Super heros" kinda stuff.

peter grimes · Aug 5, 2014

I feel I'll be infracted for flaming, trolling, and spam by naming him in this subforum, but I'll risk it anyway:

Deepak Chopra.

dusters · Aug 19, 2014

I have been trying to digest Princeton papers linked here for almost 3 weeks now and i have gotten somewhere. Studying physics in Uni has started to appeal me even more.

Thanks for the links again!

Valka D'Ur · Aug 19, 2014

peter grimes said:
I feel I'll be infracted for flaming, trolling, and spam by naming him in this subforum, but I'll risk it anyway:

Deepak Chopra.

What does this purveyor of utter drivel have to do with science?

peter grimes · Aug 19, 2014

Nothing, which is why I was even afraid to mention how here

Valka D'Ur · Aug 19, 2014

Then I fail to see the point in mentioning him, unless you mean the Deepak Chopra who runs Canada Post. Considering his plan to eliminate door-to-door mail delivery and require doctor's notes from disabled people who can't physically get to community mailboxes, some of us are wondering which brand of cornflakes he's currently using in place of a brain.

Maybe some scientist could figure that out.

Perfection · Aug 24, 2014

dusters said:
Big thanks. The stuff is easy if you spend 16+ hours per day reading about it.

No it isn't.

"If you think you understand quantum mechanics, you don't understand quantum mechanics."

El_Machinae · Aug 24, 2014

dusters said:
I have been trying to digest Princeton papers linked here for almost 3 weeks now and i have gotten somewhere. Studying physics in Uni has started to appeal me even more.

Thanks for the links again!

I have the same feelings. I've decided to wait until there's a cohesive, consensus theory and then study the hell out of it then.

I figured, it would be nice to grasp the fundaments of physics for the rest of my life. That's worth a few hundred hours of study.

uppi · Aug 24, 2014

Perfection said:
No it isn't.

"If you think you understand quantum mechanics, you don't understand quantum mechanics."

That depends on your definition of "understand"

El_Machinae said:
I have the same feelings. I've decided to wait until there's a cohesive, consensus theory and then study the hell out of it then.

The way it looks right now, that might take a while. And I doubt it is going to be simpler then the Standard Model and General Relativity.

El_Machinae · Aug 24, 2014

uppi said:
The way it looks right now, that might take a while. And I doubt it is going to be simpler then the Standard Model and General Relativity.

That's okay, I've got time. And I don't need simple, I can have a full and awesome life with a layman's understanding of tSM and GR. I'd rather have 'accurate' before I devote a couple years to it. And, me learning tSM and GR won't really speed the quest for the GUT.

dusters · Aug 25, 2014

The guys at physics faculty in Latvia already told me that i'm a woman so what i'm trying to do in physics...

Well, i can get a bach degree in Latvia and switch to less sexist Uni after.

I would suggest to think about special relativity and equations which state that mass can get directly transformed into E if anyone wants something fun to study. It kinda gets philosophical there.

uppi · Aug 25, 2014

El_Machinae said:
I'd rather have 'accurate' before I devote a couple years to it.

The 'accurate' we already have. In fact, too accurate: It's hard to know which way to go, when every measurement verifies the same old theories. It's the 'elegant' and 'consistent' that is missing.

dusters said:
The guys at physics faculty in Latvia already told me that i'm a woman so what i'm trying to do in physics...

There already are too few women in physics and that overt sexism is quite sad.

I would suggest to think about special relativity and equations which state that mass can get directly transformed into E if anyone wants something fun to study. It kinda gets philosophical there.

It gets even more fun, when you realize that most of the mass in the universe is actually bound energy.

If you want philosophical, you should have a look at the interpretations of quantum mechanics. There is a point where that stops being science and starts to become pure philosophy.

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