Science and Inquiry discussion

For April 2018, we will be reading The Elegant Universe: Superstrings, Hidden Dimensions, and the Quest for the Ultimate Theory.

Please use this thread to post questions, comments, and reviews, at any time.

I have been curious about string theory for a while and I am glad I read this book. It wasn't easy for me, although the author does a very remarkable job at making difficult concepts of physycs understandable, but I have certainly learned something.

I especially liked the discussiion on extra-dimensions although I still find it difficult to believe that they can exist.

Went ahead and read Hawking's Brief History of Time and Universe in a Nutshell first, as it doesn't go into String Theory in as much depth, so makes for a good overview.

I am trying to read this book at last. It has been sitting on my bookshelf for a decade. Or almost two, actually. So long, in fact, many scientists today now think string theory has been discredited because the Atom Collider in Europe has not yet found symmetrical whatever they need to find to prove string theory correct. (As you can see, I am not a scientist and I probably SHOULD be reading this book to sound less moronic!)

; )

aPril, I’m just getting around to it myself! We can read it late together.

Carrie wrote: "aPril, I’m just getting around to it myself! We can read it late together."

Yay! Good! Hopefully, I will understand some of it, my next goal...

I sort of, kind of, started reading it a few months ago, but I wasn't in the mood. I will start reading it as soon as I finish the book I'm currently reading.

aPril, I wouldn't say that string theory has been disproven, but rather it has never been proven. String theory is brilliant from a mathematical point of view, but it is hard to connect its mathematical conclusions with physical reality. For a scientific theory to be useful, it has to be able to make predictions about real world situations. String theory, so far, hasn't done a good job in this. So, in the strict scientific sense string theory is not a theory. It is not wrong. It just has never shown itself to be right, and it has been around for quite some time.

I finally have few distractions in order to concentrate on reading this book. To my vast surprise, it is the best book I have ever read in describing Einstein’s theories!

: O

: )

Ok, a year later. I finished it. I am considerably smarter now.

Kidding!

I believe half of my neurons died, burned out by reading the chapters after six. Not that anyone notices any difference in me. So. I'm good.