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The Trouble With Physics
''The Trouble with Physics: The Rise of String Theory, the Fall of a Science, and What Comes Next'' is a 2006 book by the theoretical physicist Lee Smolin about the problems with string theory. The book strongly criticizes string theory and its prominence in contemporary theoretical physics, on the grounds that string theory has yet to come up with a single prediction that can be verified using any technology that is likely to be feasible within our lifetimes. Smolin also focuses on the difficulties faced by research in quantum gravity, and by current efforts to come up with a theory explaining all four fundamental interactions. The book is broadly concerned with the role of controversy and diversity of approaches in scientific processes and ethics. Smolin suggests both that there appear to be serious deficiencies in string theory and that string theory has an unhealthy near-monopoly on fundamental physics in the United States, and that a diversity of approaches is needed. He arg ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lee Smolin
Lee Smolin (; born June 6, 1955) is an American theoretical physicist, a faculty member at the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics, an adjunct professor of physics at the University of Waterloo, and a member of the graduate faculty of the philosophy department at the University of Toronto. Smolin's 2006 book ''The Trouble with Physics'' criticized string theory as a viable scientific theory. He has made contributions to quantum gravity theory, in particular the approach known as loop quantum gravity. He advocates that the two primary approaches to quantum gravity, loop quantum gravity and string theory, can be reconciled as different aspects of the same underlying theory. He also advocates an alternative view on space and time that he calls temporal naturalism. His research interests also include Physical cosmology, cosmology, elementary particle theory, the foundations of quantum mechanics, and theoretical biology. [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sean M
Sean, also spelled Seán or Séan in Hiberno-English, is a male given name of Irish origin. It comes from the Irish versions of the Biblical Hebrew name ''Yohanan'' (), Seán (anglicized as '' Shaun/ Shawn/ Shon'') and Séan (Ulster variant; anglicized ''Shane/Shayne''), rendered '' John'' in English and Johannes/Johann/Johan in other Germanic languages. The Norman French ''Jehan'' (see '' Jean'') is another version. In the Irish language, the presence and placement of the síneadh fada is significant, as it changes the meaning of the name. The word "Sean" in Irish means "old", while the word "Séan" means "omen". For notable people named Sean, refer to List of people named Sean. Origin The name was adopted into the Irish language most likely from ''Jean'', the French variant of the Hebrew name ''Yohanan''. As Irish has no letter (derived from ; English also lacked until the late 17th Century, with ''John'' previously been spelt ''Iohn'') so it is substituted by , as was the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Elegant Universe
''The Elegant Universe: Superstrings, Hidden Dimensions, and the Quest for the Ultimate Theory'' is a book by Brian Greene published in 1999, which introduces string and superstring theory, and provides a comprehensive though non-technical assessment of the theory and some of its shortcomings. In 2000, it won the Royal Society Prize for Science Books and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction. A new edition was released in 2003, with an updated preface. Summary Part I: The Edge of Knowledge Chapter 1, "Tied Up With String", briefly introduces the conflicts between our current theories, and how they may be resolved. He introduces the building blocks of matter, electrons and quarks, and the forces that govern them. Part II: The Dilemma of Space, Time, and the Quantum Chapter 2, "Space, Time, and the Eye of the Beholder" explains Albert Einstein's special relativity, which united James Clerk Maxwell's electrodynamics with Galileo's principle of relativit ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Brian Greene
Brian Randolph Greene (born February 9, 1963) is an American physicist known for his research on string theory. He is a professor of physics and mathematics at Columbia University, director of its center for theoretical physics, and the chairman of the World Science Festival, which he co-founded in 2008. Greene co-discovered mirror symmetry, relating two different Calabi–Yau manifolds. He also described the flop transition, a mild form of topology change, and the conifold transition, a more severe transformation of space, showing that topology can smoothly change in string theory. His books '' The Elegant Universe (1999)'', '' The Fabric of the Cosmos (2004)'', '' The Hidden Reality (2011)'', and ''Until the End of Time'' (2020) were all top 10 New York Times bestsellers. Greene hosted two Emmy and Peabody Award Winning NOVA miniseries based on his books. He also appeared on '' The Big Bang Theory'' episode " The Herb Garden Germination", as well as in the films '' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Loop Quantum Gravity
Loop quantum gravity (LQG) is a theory of quantum gravity that incorporates matter of the Standard Model into the framework established for the intrinsic quantum gravity case. It is an attempt to develop a quantum theory of gravity based directly on Albert Einstein's geometric formulation rather than the treatment of gravity as a mysterious mechanism (force). As a theory, LQG postulates that the structure of space and time is composed of finite loops woven into an extremely fine fabric or network. These networks of loops are called spin networks. The evolution of a spin network, or spin foam, has a scale on the order of a Planck length, approximately 10−35 meters, and smaller scales are meaningless. Consequently, not just matter, but space itself, prefers an atomic structure. The areas of research, which involve about 30 research groups worldwide, share the basic physical assumptions and the mathematical description of quantum space. Research has evolved in two directions ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Internet Archive
The Internet Archive is an American 501(c)(3) organization, non-profit organization founded in 1996 by Brewster Kahle that runs a digital library website, archive.org. It provides free access to collections of digitized media including websites, Application software, software applications, music, audiovisual, and print materials. The Archive also advocates a Information wants to be free, free and open Internet. Its mission is committing to provide "universal access to all knowledge". The Internet Archive allows the public to upload and download digital material to its data cluster, but the bulk of its data is collected automatically by its web crawlers, which work to preserve as much of the public web as possible. Its web archiving, web archive, the Wayback Machine, contains hundreds of billions of web captures. The Archive also oversees numerous Internet Archive#Book collections, book digitization projects, collectively one of the world's largest book digitization efforts. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
JPEG
JPEG ( , short for Joint Photographic Experts Group and sometimes retroactively referred to as JPEG 1) is a commonly used method of lossy compression for digital images, particularly for those images produced by digital photography. The degree of compression can be adjusted, allowing a selectable trade off between storage size and image quality. JPEG typically achieves 10:1 compression with noticeable, but widely agreed to be acceptable perceptible loss in image quality. Since its introduction in 1992, JPEG has been the most widely used image compression standard in the world, and the most widely used digital image format, with several billion JPEG images produced every day as of 2015. The Joint Photographic Experts Group created the standard in 1992, based on the discrete cosine transform (DCT) algorithm. JPEG was largely responsible for the proliferation of digital images and digital photos across the Internet and later social media. JPEG compression is used in a number of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Synchronized Multimedia Integration Language
Synchronized Multimedia Integration Language (SMIL ()) is a World Wide Web Consortium recommended Extensible Markup Language (XML) markup language to describe multimedia presentations. It defines markup for timing, layout, animations, visual transitions, and media embedding, among other things. SMIL allows presenting media items such as text, images, video, audio, links to other SMIL presentations, and files from multiple web servers. SMIL markup is written in XML, and has similarities to HTML. Members of the World Wide Web Consortium (also known as the "W3C") created SMIL for streaming media presentations, and published SMIL 1.0 in June 1998. Many of these W3C members helped author several versions of SMIL specifications between 1996 (when the first multimedia workshops were hosted by the W3C) and 2008 (when SMIL 3.0 was published). SMIL is an XML-based application, and is a part of many Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS) applications. SMIL can be combined with other XML-bas ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Peter Woit
Peter Woit (; born September 11, 1957) is a Latvian-American mathematician who works in twistor theory. He works in the mathematics department at Columbia University. Woit, a critic of string theory, has published a book ''Not Even Wrong'' (2006) and writes a blog of the same name. Career Woit graduated in 1979 from Harvard University with bachelor's and master's degrees in physics. He obtained his PhD in particle physics from Princeton University in 1985, followed by postdoctoral work in theoretical physics at State University of New York at Stony Brook and mathematics at the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute (MSRI) in Berkeley. He spent four years as an assistant professor at Columbia. He now holds a permanent position in the mathematics department, as a senior lecturer. Woit is a U.S. citizen and also has a Latvian passport. His father was born in Riga and became exiled with his own parents at the beginning of the Soviet occupation of Latvia. Criticism of string t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
KITP
The Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics (KITP) is a research institute of the University of California, Santa Barbara dedicated to theoretical physics. KITP is one of 20 Kavli Institutes. The National Science Foundation has been the principal supporter of the institute since it was founded as the Institute for Theoretical Physics in 1979. In a 2007 article in the ''Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences'', KITP was given the highest impact index in a comparison of nonbiomedical research organizations across the United States. About In the early 2000s, the institute, formerly known as the Institute for Theoretical Physics, or ITP, was named after businessman and philanthropist Fred Kavli, in recognition of his donation of $7.5 million to the institute. Kohn Hall, which houses KITP, is located just beyond the Henley Gate at the East Entrance of the UCSB campus. The building was designed by the Driehaus Prize winner and New Classical architect Michael Graves, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
UCSB
The University of California, Santa Barbara (UC Santa Barbara or UCSB) is a public land-grant research university in Santa Barbara County, California, United States. Tracing its roots back to 1891 as an independent teachers college, UCSB joined the University of California system in 1944. It is the third-oldest undergraduate campus in the system, after UC Berkeley and UCLA. UCSB's campus sits on the oceanfront site of a converted WWII-era Marine Corps air station. UCSB is organized into three undergraduate colleges ( Letters and Science, Engineering, Creative Studies) and two graduate schools (Education and Environmental Science & Management), offering more than 200 degrees and programs. It is classified among "R1: Doctoral Universities – Very high research activity" and is regarded as a Public Ivy. The university has 12 national research centers and institutes, including the Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics and NSF Quantum Foundry. According to the National Scie ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sabine Hossenfelder
Sabine Karin Doris Hossenfelder (born 18 September 1976) is a German theoretical physicist, author, science communicator, and YouTuber. She is the author of '' Existential Physics: A Scientist’s Guide to Life’s Biggest Questions''. Early life and education Sabine Hossenfelder was born in Frankfurt, West Germany, on 18 September 1976. She received an undergraduate degree in mathematics in 1997 from the Goethe University Frankfurt. In 2004, she completed a doctorate in theoretical physics from the same institution, with her thesis titled "Schwarze Löcher in Extra-Dimensionen: Eigenschaften und Nachweis" (). Employment Hossenfelder remained in Germany until 2004 on a postdoctoral research position from the GSI Helmholtz Centre for Heavy Ion Research in Darmstadt. She was subsequently employed as a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of Arizona, Tucson, University of California, Santa Barbara, and later at the Perimeter Institute in Waterloo, Canada. In 20 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
