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To: SunkenCiv

It was dated yesterday.

Link:

A Great Unraveling
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/17/books/review/Siegfried.t.html?_r=1&ref=review&oref=slogin

Books in question are...

NOT EVEN WRONG:
The Failure of String Theory and the Search for Unity in Physical Law
by Peter Woit

THE TROUBLE WITH PHYSICS:
The Rise of String Theory, the Fall of a Science, and What Comes Next
by Lee Smolin


52 posted on 09/18/2006 11:23:58 AM PDT by Constitution Day (Please do not emanate into the penumbra.)
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To: Constitution Day

I guess I was thinking of this:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/1686282/posts?page=10#10

Thanks again!


53 posted on 09/18/2006 5:24:05 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (updated my FR profile on Saturday, September 16, 2006. https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/)
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To: Constitution Day

Thanks again. I'm not too sure this reviewer knows what he's doing; I wasn't favorably impressed by the review. Here's a couple of snips, which I've jammed together.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/17/books/review/Siegfried.t.html?_r=2&ref=review&pagewanted=print

"After years of neglect by most physicists, superstring theory (string theory for short) emerged in 1984 as a leading candidate to solve the especially acute problem of reconciling general relativity -- Einstein's theory of gravity -- with quantum mechanics, the math describing the micro-realm of atoms. It posits the conceptually innocent but mathematically sophisticated idea that basic units of matter and force are more like tiny vibrating rubber bands than like the point-size tiny marbles envisioned by traditional particle physics. Math describing these vibrating "strings" incorporates gravity naturally, offering hope that string theory could realize Einstein's ambition. But string theory has its own problems: it cannot yet claim success in explaining any of nature's specific features, and does not even exist as a complete theory... Smolin's book is worth taking seriously as a plea for more support for minority viewpoints. But neither he nor Woit really confront the reason ideas in physics become majority viewpoints. When John Schwarz of Caltech and his few collaborators worked alone on string theory throughout the 1970's, they wrote no books complaining about lack of resources. They worked until they found a striking result that mainstream physicists found worth pursuing. Physicists vote with their feet, which suggests that there is, after all, a way to prove string theory wrong -- by finding a different theory and proving it right."


57 posted on 09/18/2006 11:04:22 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (updated my FR profile on Saturday, September 16, 2006. https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/)
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