EPISODE · May 23, 2020 · 5 MIN
Search For String Theory
from dacca · host dacca
I created this track after flicking through the pages of a recently acquired book - "The World According To Physics" by one of my favourite popularisers of science, physicist Jim Al-Khalili. The book is both broad in scope, and adorably small. It looks highly accessible to a non-scientist such as me - I'll start reading it shortly (May 2020). Amongst the topics is unification - the search for a "Grand Unified Theory" or "Theory of Everything" that combines two incompatible yet highly successful pillars of modern physics namely quantum mechanics and general relativity. In that search one of the long term efforts has been string theory, leading to M-theory and superstring theory. String theory and its offspring are sometimes regarded as more philosophy than science due to the lack of any testable hypothesis. String theory has a long history: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_string_theory In this track I couldn't resist trying to create a track that makes heavy use of string instruments, in my own 'search for string theory' as I contemplated all the effort that has gone into string theory with no practical result. And that's ok, the 'search for string theory' is how science works. Deeper mathematical models (way beyond me) and the ongoing search for unification are worthy goals. If it's wrong, it's wrong. If string theory is a mistake then that's ok - it's ok to make mistakes in science. But we might still learn a great deal about mathematics and the nature of the natural world as a result. We can learn from mistakes, or dead-ends. ------------------ Artwork taken from: "String theory?" by tailfan, Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/7725050@N06/631503428
What this episode covers
I created this track after flicking through the pages of a recently acquired book - "The World According To Physics" by one of my favourite popularisers of science, physicist Jim Al-Khalili. The book is both broad in scope, and adorably small. It looks highly accessible to a non-scientist such as me - I'll start reading it shortly (May 2020). Amongst the topics is unification - the search for a "Grand Unified Theory" or "Theory of Everything" that combines two incompatible yet highly successful pillars of modern physics namely quantum mechanics and general relativity. In that search one of the long term efforts has been string theory, leading to M-theory and superstring theory. String theory and its offspring are sometimes regarded as more philosophy than science due to the lack of any testable hypothesis. String theory has a long history: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_string_theory In this track I couldn't resist trying to create a track that makes heavy use of string instruments, in my own 'search for string theory' as I contemplated all the effort that has gone into string theory with no practical result. And that's ok, the 'search for string theory' is how science works. Deeper mathematical models (way beyond me) and the ongoing search for unification are worthy goals. If it's wrong, it's wrong. If string theory is a mistake then that's ok - it's ok to make mistakes in science. But we might still learn a great deal about mathematics and the nature of the natural world as a result. We can learn from mistakes, or dead-ends. ------------------ Artwork taken from: "String theory?" by tailfan, Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/7725050@N06/631503428
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Search For String Theory
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