In 2004 string theory had been a hot research topic for 20 years and “it really wasn’t working.” “There’s this huge public promotion of the theory and there’s all this stuff about how wonderful string theory is …” Woit pauses, shakes his head, and chuckles in disbelief. “This is just getting more and more outrageous, this is just getting ridiculous,” Woit remembers thinking about string theory in 2004, when he started the blog. String theory proposes to solve this problem by replacing elementary particles with strings as nature’s most fundamental objects. Unhappily for physicists, these two theories are logically and mathematically incompatible. The second is Einstein’s general relativity, which explains the fourth force, gravity, relevant only at much larger scales. The first of these is quantum field theory, which covers the subatomic domain, the behavior of elementary particles, and three of the four forces of nature. Woit uses it against string theory, that most famous contender for the holy grail of physics: a “Theory of Everything” that would unite the two theories that physicists currently need to describe the universe. Woit’s crime? A blog and a book, both called Not Even Wrong after a famous barb first wielded by physicist Wolfgang Pauli. “I was worried,” said Woit’s longtime girlfriend, Pamela Cruz.
Reproduction or redistribution of this information is prohibited except with written permission from Fidessa.Watching Peter Woit lecture on quantum mechanics to a class at Columbia University-speaking softly, tapping out equations on a blackboard-it’s hard to imagine why a Harvard physicist once publicly compared him to a terrorist and called for his death. All other intellectual property rights are reserved.įragulator® is a registered trademark of Fidessa Group Holdings Limited.
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They must have been drinking more sangria than I have over the past few weeks. Gently easing my way back into the daily grind after my annual vacation I came across the report that MPs in London are proposing to tax HFT.