Comments on: The Culture Wars Have Moved into Physics http://www.sharpsand.net/2007/04/03/the-culture-wars-have-moved-into-physics/ Joseph Duemer's blog about reading, writing, politics, birds, food, & weather Sun, 25 Jul 2010 17:06:12 -0600 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0 By: efp http://www.sharpsand.net/2007/04/03/the-culture-wars-have-moved-into-physics/comment-page-1/#comment-2754 efp Wed, 04 Apr 2007 03:58:28 +0000 http://www.sharpsand.net/2007/04/03/the-culture-wars-have-moved-into-physics/#comment-2754 I think this all started when it hit the public sphere. First Greene's popular book on the merits of string theory, then Smolin's popular book on why its a waste of time, etc. Before these recent developments, I don't recall anyone getting all hot and bothered about it, and it's been around for 20 years. We are facing a situation where theorists have gotten very speculative because there's not much new data to work with, except on the cosmology side. I would be very curious to see what happens if the LHC doesn't produce anything totally unexpected--perhaps a fundamental shift in how we pursue basic science. Though I'd much rather have it spit out subatomic black holes. Of course, 99.9% of physicists are too busy aligning lasers and firing up vacuum pumps to pay much attention. I think this all started when it hit the public sphere. First Greene’s popular book on the merits of string theory, then Smolin’s popular book on why its a waste of time, etc. Before these recent developments, I don’t recall anyone getting all hot and bothered about it, and it’s been around for 20 years.

We are facing a situation where theorists have gotten very speculative because there’s not much new data to work with, except on the cosmology side. I would be very curious to see what happens if the LHC doesn’t produce anything totally unexpected–perhaps a fundamental shift in how we pursue basic science. Though I’d much rather have it spit out subatomic black holes.

Of course, 99.9% of physicists are too busy aligning lasers and firing up vacuum pumps to pay much attention.

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