Quote:
Originally Posted by WT Sharpe
For another opinion on The Trouble with Physics: The Rise of String Theory, the Fall of a Science, and What Comes Next by Lee Smolin, read "All Strung Out," the American Scientist review of the book by Joseph Polchinski. Here's a sample:
Smolin presents the rise and fall of string theory as a morality play. He accurately captures the excitement that theorists felt at the discovery of this unexpected and powerful new idea. But this story, however grippingly told, is more a work of drama than of history. Even the turning point, the first crack in the facade, is based on a myth: Smolin claims that string theorists had predicted that the energy of the vacuum—something often called dark energy—could not be positive and that the surprising 1998 discovery of the accelerating expansion of the universe (which implies the existence of positive dark energy) caused a hasty retreat. There was, in fact, no such prediction. Although his book is for the most part thoroughly referenced, Smolin cites no source on this point. He quotes Edward Witten, but Witten made his comments in a very different context—and three years after the discovery of accelerating expansion. Indeed, the quotation is doubly taken out of context, because at the same meeting at which Witten spoke, his former student Eva Silverstein gave a solution to the problem about which he was so pessimistic. This episode also goes to show that, contrary to another myth, young string theorists are not so intimidated by their elders.
As Smolin charts the fall of string theory, he presents further misconceptions. For example...
To read the full review, go to http://www.americanscientist.org/boo...all-strung-out. |
That may or may not be true in general. But the specific issue I was directing this at has to do with how research is funded currently, who decides and who holds the purse strings and I really think he is right on about that piece and it is of concern.