String Theory Tangle

Has string theory tied up better ideas in physics?

By SHARON BEGLEY The Wall Street Journal

2006-06-23

(AP) - Nobel physicist Wolfgang Pauli didn't suffer fools gladly. Fond of calling colleagues' work "wrong" or "completely wrong," he saved his worst epithet for work so sloppy and speculative it is "not even wrong."

That's how mathematician Peter Woit of Columbia University describes string theory. In his book, "Not Even Wrong," published in the U.K. this month and due in the U.S. in September, he calls the theory "a disaster for physics."

A year or two ago, that would have been a fringe opinion, motivated by sour grapes over not sitting at physics' equivalent of the cool kids' table. But now, after two decades in which string theory has been the doyenne of best-seller lists and the dominant paradigm in particle physics, Mr. Woit has company.

"When it comes to extending our knowledge of the laws of nature, we have made no real headway" in 30 years, writes physicist Lee Smolin of the Perimeter Institute in Waterloo, Canada, in his book, "The Trouble with Physics," also due in September. "It's called hitting the wall."

He blames string theory for this "crisis in particle physics," the branch of physics that tries to explain the most fundamental forces and building blocks of the world.

String theory, which took off in 1984, posits that elementary particles such as electrons are not points, as standard physics had it. They are, instead, vibrations of one-dimensional strings 1/100 billion billionth the size of an atomic nucleus. Different vibrations supposedly produce all the subatomic particles from quarks to gluons. Oh, and strings exist in a space of 10, or maybe 11, dimensions. No one knows exactly what or where the extra dimensions are, but assuming their existence makes the math work.

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Part 3- Paranormal Physics 101 By Russell White PHYSICS...come on say it with me…PHYSICS...see it’s not so bad. Granted the equations and formulas that go along with physics are somewhat daunting unless of course your name is Poindexter. Most of us, however, don’t wear plaid shirts and striped pants. Most of us can’t walk through a foot deep puddle of water without getting the bottom of said pants wet. Most of us don’t have an endless supply of pens, pencils, laser pointers and erasers in our breast pocket either. But neither can we decipher this: (Equation for electromagnetic waves.)

Illustration of String Theory

Physics has a place in the research of the paranormal. In fact, I have said before that I feel it is through this discipline of science that the paranormal will finally be proven to exist. Physics is the study of matter, energy and their interactions. Physics is also known as the study of nature’s FUNDAMENTAL forces. This discipline of science is unique in that it uses these big hairy formulas and equations, which are aspects of mathematical law, to prove that which is intangible, those things that can’t be physically seen, touched or heard at times. Mention physics to most people on the streets and the majority of them will immediately freeze up and shut down at the very least or run away screaming into the distance at the very worst.

Aside from all these horrible looking numbers and letters seemingly scattered at random on a piece of paper, physics give us many plausible possibilities and in some cases actually supports the theories of paranormal researchers.