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Kil
Evil Skeptic
USA
13476 Posts |
 Posted - 07/07/2009 : 11:27:44
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Physical Reality Of String Theory Shown In Quantum-critical State Of Electrons
| ScienceDaily (July 7, 2009) — String theory has come under fire in recent years. Promises have been made that have not been lived up to. Leiden theoretical physicists have now for the first time used string theory to describe a physical phenomenon -- the quantum-critical state of electrons leading to high-temperature superconductivity. Their discovery has been reported recently in the journal Science. |
Snip:
Theory of everything
This is the first time that a calculation based on string theory has been published in Science, even though the theory is widely known. "There have always been a lot of expectations surrounding string theory," Zaanen explains, having himself studied the theory to satisfy his own curiosity. "String theory is often seen as a child of Einstein that aims to devise a revolutionary and comprehensive theory, a kind of 'theory of everything.' Ten years ago, researchers even said: 'Give us two weeks and we'll be able to tell you where the big bang came from.' The problem of string theory was that, in spite of its excellent maths, it was never able to make a concrete link with the physical reality -- the world around us." |
Well, really, I don't know a whole lot about this sort of thing. What I do know is that string theory has been considered not falsifiable and highly speculative. So this could be big news...
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Uncertainty may make you uncomfortable. Certainty makes you ridiculous.
Why not question something for a change?
Genetic Literacy Project |
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Simon
SFN Regular
USA
1992 Posts |
Posted - 07/07/2009 : 12:47:42 [Permalink]
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As far as I know, this is the first instance of testable hypothesis generated by the string theory. A test it passed brilliantly!
That's exciting indeed! |
Look again at that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every "superstar," every "supreme leader," every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there – on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.
Carl Sagan - 1996 |
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filthy
SFN Die Hard
USA
14408 Posts |
Posted - 07/07/2009 : 13:19:40 [Permalink]
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I don't pretend to understand much if any of this, but high-temp superconductors are pretty amazing in themselves. I think I'll keep an eye out for further advances in the field.
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"What luck for rulers that men do not think." -- Adolf Hitler (1889 - 1945)
"If only we could impeach on the basis of criminal stupidity, 90% of the Rethuglicans and half of the Democrats would be thrown out of office." ~~ P.Z. Myres
"The default position of human nature is to punch the other guy in the face and take his stuff." ~~ Dude
Brother Boot Knife of Warm Humanitarianism,
and Crypto-Communist! 
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Dude
SFN Die Hard
USA
6891 Posts |
Posted - 07/07/2009 : 13:28:17 [Permalink]
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High temperature super conductor is a slightly misleading term. Materials that become superconductive near the liquid point of nitrogen (76kelvin? or something like that) are considered high temp.
Back to the OP... String Theory with a testable hypothesis and some evidence that supports the hypothesis is definitely interesting. Going to have to go read the journal article!
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Ignorance is preferable to error; and he is less remote from the truth who believes nothing, than he who believes what is wrong.
-- Thomas Jefferson
"god :: the last refuge of a man with no answers and no argument." - G. Carlin
Hope, n.
The handmaiden of desperation; the opiate of despair; the illegible signpost on the road to perdition. ~~ da filth |
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Ricky
SFN Die Hard
USA
4907 Posts |
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First ever evidence for String Theory.
