Cosmologic philosophy:string theory die! (Introduction)

by David Turell , Sunday, July 05, 2015, 15:15 (3429 days ago) @ David Turell

A new conference looks at the necessity for empirical evidence vs. theories going no where:-http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg22730283.900-physicists-launch-fight-to-make-data-more-important-than-theory.html?full=true-"Last week, the Perimeter Institute in Waterloo, Canada, hosted its inaugural Convergence conference at the same time as Strings 2015, the world's largest string theory conference, was taking place in Bangalore, India. The timing wasn't entirely accidental, says Perimeter director Neil Turok. Although string theory attempts to describe the universe in one theoretical framework, it makes no attempt to explain experimental results, he says.-"'We've been given these incredible clues from nature and we're failing to make sense of them," he told New Scientist. "In fact, we're doing the opposite: theory is becoming ever more complex and contrived. We throw in more fields, more dimensions, more symmetry - we're throwing the kitchen sink at the problem and yet failing to explain the most basic facts."-"Turok's response: a data buffet. Convergence gave researchers a chance to parade their field's most puzzling experimental results, in areas from why 96 per cent of the universe appears to be missing and cosmic inflation to quantum entanglement and the fate of information when matter falls into black holes. The ultimate goal is to give young theorists alternative paths to pursue - ones guided by empirical evidence.-***
"Other physicists presented even more exotic problems for colleagues to chew on. Matthew Fisher of the University of California, Santa Barbara, suggested theorists in search of a challenge could tackle the human brain's connection to fundamental quantum physics.-"'Our ultimate challenge is to understand the conduit through which we understand what is 'out there'," he said. "Cognition is the ultimate mystery."-"John Preskill of Caltech spoke on the quantum structure of black holes and posed a challenge to fellow theorists: "Does space-time emerge from quantum entanglement?" he asked. "The evidence is building for this."-***-"That is why physics must maintain a tenacious grip on experiment. "The most important thing is to have experimentalists talking about real phenomena," Turok says. "We're at this wonderful stage: we've seen the Higgs boson, we've seen the whole universe, our reach is further than ever before... and we're fundamentally confused. What I think we need now are very simple, radical ideas that will point towards new approaches to the big problems.'"