Hard Science Gone Soft
Posted July 21st, 2008 by Clicheophobe
A review of The Trouble with Physics: The Rise of String Theory, the Fall of a Science, and What Comes Next by Lee Smolin
Physics, according to Smolin, has hit a wall. The last time a fundamental theory of physics successfully explained a new observation from the real world was 1981. No twenty-five-year period in the past two hundred years, by Smolin’s reckoning, has been as fallow for physics as the one we’ve just lived through. Having spent several years of my career in elementary particle physics, the field from which Smolin harkens, I know he’s right.
