Comments on: Life just got more … interesting http://langabi.name/blog/2006/09/20/life-just-got-more-interesting Paul Cook's blog Fri, 10 Feb 2012 00:59:21 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.2 By: Adam http://langabi.name/blog/2006/09/20/life-just-got-more-interesting#comment-5609 Adam Thu, 21 Sep 2006 07:27:06 +0000 http://langabi.name/blog/2006/09/20/life-just-got-more-interesting#comment-5609 So, I went to Borders to get some coffee and browse for interesting books and in the span of a couple weeks saw not one but two new books about how string theory is a dead-end. First is <a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/0618551050/" rel="nofollow">The Trouble With Physics: The Rise of String Theory, the Fall of a Science, and What Comes Next (Lee Smolin)</a>, published on Sept 19, 2006. The second is <a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/0465092756/" rel="nofollow">Not Even Wrong (Peter Woit)</a>, published on Sept 30, 2006. Clearly, these are at least partially in response to the success of Brian Greene's <a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/0393058581/" rel="nofollow">The Elegant Universe</a> and <a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/0375412883/" rel="nofollow">The Fabric of the Cosmos</a>. But from the description, both are of the "String Theory hasn't made any testable predictions yet"/"String theory is a solution looking for a problem" camp. Anyway, I find it interesting that two such similar books came out so close to the same time. I hope that you get a chance to help prove these books wrong. So, I went to Borders to get some coffee and browse for interesting books and in the span of a couple weeks saw not one but two new books about how string theory is a dead-end.

First is The Trouble With Physics: The Rise of String Theory, the Fall of a Science, and What Comes Next (Lee Smolin), published on Sept 19, 2006. The second is Not Even Wrong (Peter Woit), published on Sept 30, 2006. Clearly, these are at least partially in response to the success of Brian Greene’s The Elegant Universe and The Fabric of the Cosmos. But from the description, both are of the “String Theory hasn’t made any testable predictions yet”/”String theory is a solution looking for a problem” camp.

Anyway, I find it interesting that two such similar books came out so close to the same time. I hope that you get a chance to help prove these books wrong.

]]> By: Chris http://langabi.name/blog/2006/09/20/life-just-got-more-interesting#comment-5608 Chris Thu, 21 Sep 2006 06:21:06 +0000 http://langabi.name/blog/2006/09/20/life-just-got-more-interesting#comment-5608 RE publishing and the professional survival of the academia, I recently received some sound advice on how to go about that successfully. Shout if you want me to send it to you, it has some simple and handy hints on how to stagger your research yet make sure that you are viewed as making progress, etc. Glad to hear you're on the verge of a breakthrough, as opposed to a breakdown :) Regards, me RE publishing and the professional survival of the academia, I recently received some sound advice on how to go about that successfully. Shout if you want me to send it to you, it has some simple and handy hints on how to stagger your research yet make sure that you are viewed as making progress, etc.

Glad to hear you’re on the verge of a breakthrough, as opposed to a breakdown :)

Regards,
me

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