Access
This article is part of Nature's premium content.
Published online 26 March 2008 | Nature | doi:10.1038/452392b
String theorists hope to classify the cosmos
Dimensions of space-time used to order potential universes.
To read this story in full you will need to login or make a payment (see right).
Comments
Reader comments are usually moderated after posting. If you find something offensive or inappropriate, you can speed this process by clicking 'Report this comment' (or, if that doesn't work for you, email webadmin@nature.com). For more controversial topics, we reserve the right to moderate before comments are published.
I am a skeptic too. I would draw attention to one mythology that needs to be challenged: "String theory is beloved by [String] theorists because it is one of the few paradigms that promises to merge quantum mechanics ... with general relativity ..." There really is no basis for this promise other than unfounded optimism.
u guys never going to make it/ and pysics ain't gonna end this soon,thus we have a lot to do in the future~~~
Science would be no fun without quirky theories and quirkier proponents, but today's quirk may well be tomorrow's paradigm. Let more brains work on this, or oppose it. Science benefits, that's for sure, no strings attached.
So far, String Theory seems to be primarily defined as 'The Theory that includes enough stuff to define everything while being just complicated enough to put most people off'. It is hard to see the elegance of a theory that has a nearly infinite number of answers. I would suggest that you wait until AI is invented and turn the problem over to that discipline. Is there any non-self-defining proof? An eclipse or something?
Hi, The String theory is a theory in many way an untidy theory. The Higgs boson because it is based of the assumption of a big bang may not exist. The Universe could be cyclic in nature expanding and contracting with out a big bang ever happening. This solves the question as to what happened before the big bang. Theories should be based on explaining events not on assumptions. Regards Dr. Terence Hale
I think that String Vacuum Project should be welcomed, as any other effort to clarify the theory. Actually is one of best we have, maybe a little bit complicated. In any case let's wait for the experimental results, just a few months ahead. Probably LHC will aid to solve this issue. Alberto Ferrero, Turin - Italy
Dr. Terence Hale is correct. To understand the far reaches of the universe we must first focus our attention on the material that makes up matter right here, under our very nose. So far as I know, scientists working on string theory and the discovery of the Higgs boson remain unaware that the rest masses of known nuclei provide compelling evidence that neutrons strongly repel each other ["Neutron repulsion confirmed as energy source", J. Fusion Energy 20, 197-201 (2003)]. Oliver K. Manuel
This is a good idea, because as it stands String Theory is not yet 'scientific.' Until it produces some actual, obervable, testable predictions, it doesn't fall under the realm of Science. So to start down a road that will take us there is really good.
Though I am a proponent of string theory I just do not understand trying to wade through 10^500 vacua to find our unique solution. It seems to me that some unique very large symmetry using the Monster Sporadic Group would enable all the transforms of superstring theory to be placed in proper order. And there is the nearly pinned down cosmological constant and this should narrow the field down even more so. String theory or variant just needs to explain 10^123. Now excuse me I gotta go buy a Powerball ticket.
As an experimental neurobiologist, trying to understand (and avoid Alzheimer) I have always been fascinated by (and jealous of) the absolute freedom of the theoretical "string-scientists" ... and then wonder on how difficult it must be to re-organize 10e500 "vacua" into the one universe we know, despite its 10e500 layers of complexity - of which our brain constitutes a minor, but not the least important fraction !
There is no need to resort to string theory and the myriad orders of vacua if we apply information theory ,for example to explain why cosmological constant is 120 orders of value less than what quantum mechanical energy calculations[based on virtual particle pairs] predict. Also new concepts like for instance quality fields and associated vector principles concerning elements of solidity,liquidity and radiance, if quantised can do away with assumptions of vector particles of the nature of Higgs Boson, since there is a quality vector principle like solidity operating in the universe at a very fundamental level,analogous to the liquidity principle deep in the vacuum[some recent particle high/ultra high energy collissions point to this possibility] since quarkian plasma type behaviour is not seen at the expected energy levels ,whereas a liquidity medium- like synchronised particle motion is or has been observed. So instead of one big bang and an associated singularity there could be evolution and dissolution from an elemental quality field based on the operation of vector principles that cause the univers to evidence from its protean state ,and which in turn cause its dissolution back to the elemental existence of being in a quality field characterised by its vector principles. This provides a conceptual framwork withought the confusion of quantities assumed and looked for in an unending quest.
There is no need to resort to string theory and the myriad orders of vacua if we apply information theory ,for example to explain why cosmological constant is 120 orders of value less than what quantum mechanical energy calculations[based on virtual particle pairs] predict. Also new concepts like for instance quality fields and associated vector principles concerning elements of solidity,liquidity and radiance, if quantised can do away with assumptions of vector particles of the nature of Higgs Boson, since there is a quality vector principle like solidity operating in the universe at a very fundamental level,analogous to the liquidity principle deep in the vacuum[some recent particle high/ultra high energy collissions point to this possibility] since quarkian plasma type behaviour is not seen at the expected energy levels ,whereas a liquidity medium- like synchronised particle motion is or has been observed. So instead of one big bang and an associated singularity there could be evolution and dissolution from an elemental quality field based on the operation of vector principles that cause the univers to evidence from its protean state ,and which in turn cause its dissolution back to the elemental existence of being in a quality field characterised by its vector principles. This provides a conceptual framwork withought the confusion of quantities assumed and looked for in an unending quest. SURESHKUMAR,SCIENTIST,NIIST
It is difficult to parody string theory because it is so obviously self-satirical. It is difficult not to regard it as a sheltered workshop activity that drains resources from more useful physics or new approaches. What it promises and what it can deliver exist in two non-intersecting universes. It's like semiotics on speed. Art Raiche
'String theorists hope to classify the cosmos' (Nature, 452, 292; 2008) alludes to "a nearly infinite number of ways to fold the extra dimensions" and a "near-infinite number of vacua". Compared to an infinity of vacua, surely 10^500 different string vacua is an infinitesimally small number. Whether this paucity of solutions should be of comfort to string theorists is debatable.