Similarly, John laments, some physicists contend that strings do not exist in space or time, but instead that space and time themselves may be made of strings. It is matter and energy that are made of strings, not the other way around. Instead, some physicists say, strings would somehow occupy a deeper layer of reality. The part I found most intriguing is toward the beginning, when John takes issue with the idea that strings, those infinitesimally thin and frustratingly enigmatic loops that many of our readers either hate to love or love to hate, aren’t made of matter or energy. John on the other hand has for decades fashioned himself as the curmudgeon of science journalism, poking fun at the cultural idiosyncrasies of science and essentially declaring game over in his 1997 book The End Of Science: Facing The Limits Of Knowledge In The Twilight Of The Scientific Age (as well as in numerous articles for Scientific American, where he used to be a senior writer).īoth of them however reason with much more nuance and subtlety than those simplistic descriptions would have you think, as they demonstrate in more than an hour of discussion intertwining the grand themes of fundamental physics: string theory, the multiverse, cosmic inflation and the anthropic principle–and even the issue of what science itself is. George’s is that of an unabashed optimist, and toward the end he states his belief that science will eventually discover the ultimate simple laws of everything that will make everyone smack their forehead and go, “why didn’t I think of it?” George and John make an especially compelling duo to watch because their personas are almost diametrically opposed. If you look for some light fare for your placid Saturday afternoon, here’s an idea: ponder these ultimate questions–on life, nature, the universe and everything–with my fellow SciAm network bloggers George Musser and John Horgan, by watching the debate they had last night at. So far, this theory of matter is just a theory as no one has ever managed to observe a string or prove its behavior, however many physicists believe that the theory is mathematically correct and is close to explain all of the phenomena that science has managed to observe to date.Can strings be the ultimate constituents of the universe–more fundamental than matter or energy, and even than space or time? If they’re not made of matter or energy, what are they, then? So in this theory, everything is made of incredibly small strings. String theory is a different type of theory of matter which moves away from point-like particles and represents matter as being constructed of incredibly short ‘strings’ which change orientation, meet, interact, vibrate, and carry direction and is this behavior that produces the effects that earlier researchers believed were proof of individual particles. Further subdividing, sub-atomic particles have been observed to consist of even smaller particles called elementary particles, such as quarks which make up neutrons. However, subatomic particles called neutrons, protons, and electrons were theorized and then observed through their different behaviors. In the past, atoms were thought to be the smallest particles possible. Theories of matter keep looking toward smaller scales. Einstein’s theory of general relativity, however, doesn’t properly describe the behaviors of subatomic particles and new observations in physics required the development of a new theory of matter. Here’s a bit of advanced and really complicated quantum physics theory made a little bit more simply.Įinstein’s famous equation, E=MC2, demonstrated that energy and matter are essentially related and one can be converted into the other.
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