h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I recently stumbled uppon this updated version of the string theroies called "M thoery", supper cool. It is exquisit. It actually goes back before the big bang.
I also heard "they" were building a new atom smasher twice as powerfull as the one currently in operation. It just might even work better than your suicide machine. hehe. We might in our lifetimes see the greatest of mysteries come close to solved.

I know of and love M-theory. It was string theorist Edward Witten that proposed the idea, in the 1980s some time, that perhaps they weren't just strings... but multi-dimensional membranes. If you haven't already read them, Brian Greene's books about the subject, starting with 'The Elegant Universe', are fascinating reads.

Yes, CERN is building a new particle accelerator called the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) to replace the Large Electron-Positron Collider. This should be turned on in 2008. And, a new accelerator is also planned to be built closer to home... Oxford! With a marginally more original name - the Diamond synchrotron - this should be ready by 2012, and will then be the largest in Europe!

Myself, I can't wait!

Oddly enough I just watched a two hour special on Nova a short time ago; the title of the program was "The Elegant Universe" and it was hosted by Brian Greene. Deffinatly worth watching. I'll have a look around for his other works.

The currently used atom smasher is a little closer to home for me, eather way I too am very interested to see if they have a shot at being to first to actually gather hard data to support these theories.

It is history in the making.

I watched that program too (on Channel 4). It was very well presented in my opinion - I wished more people had seen it so that they were aware of these cutting-edge ideas.

So whereabouts in the world do you live? There is a current atom smasher in Illinois too, you know.

Aware I was not. That is eaven closer too home......I wonder if I could go on a tour.....?
Oh yeah, I live on the "north coast" (well, within an hour or so of it).

I was very exited to be able to "see" string theory, I've only ever studied it on my own out of book's and on the internet. It put alot of pieces together for me to get a good visual image; almost like a group discussion......I don't generally have anyone to discuss stuff like this with so it seems very sci-fi to me. I found it very reassureing<?> to know there were so many out there who get "it".
Well, at least pretend to get it.

The accelerator in Illinois is at a place called FermiLab, so if you find their website you might see whether visitors' tours are possible or not.

I'm quite confident that I understand string theory as far as its physics are concerned. The mathematics of string theory - or M-theory, I should say - is probably much more complex and I haven't studied it myself. They say that the mathematics of string theory suddenly 'gives rise' to the equations of relativity with little or no mathematical manipulation necessary.

One of my own thoughts about string theory was that if you could find out exactly how the vibration of the string that represents each particle actually vibrates, then you could extrapolate a musical note from that, and hence produce a piece of music based on the vibrations of the strings of all the particles in a given item. That would be fun, wouldn't it?

Sounds incrediable. It dose raise questions as to how one might look dancing to such a sound.

I suppose it already looks like something from chaos theory when I dance now. Hey, maybe I'm on to something!?

Incredible indeed.

Have you read 'Hyperspace' by Michio Kaku?

No. You may indulge if you would be so kind. Broad strokes.

I just skimmed through "The Sub-Atomic World of Kaons, Axions, J/Psi, Sigma and Xi Particles."

It seems to me you have a little more than just a fundamental understanding of t physics. I'm gonna take it home to read over the weekend.

Cheers!

I have quite a collection of entries about sub-atomic particles and other physics-related concepts.

Hyperspace by Michio Kaku is a great book about higher dimensions, relativity, quantum theory, wormholes, parallel universes, proof for the existence/non-existence of God, and... M-theory!

Pretty cool. I was wondering about a few things.
: Are the Axion particles possibly the fabric of the "Membrane", sounds eriely similar givin your description.?.

:Most the info is presented as "factual" not theoritical. Did they actually have the tec. to study sub-a particles in 1952(ei:AA), or are these theories that we have, or are, currently proving/trying to prove.

:A graviton fit's where in the sub-a pie? I was under the impression it was one of like three main particles. You mention alot more than three..............
.........
: Do you actually understand all the "fine print" in this paper? If so are you on a leash? LOL

In M-theory, the membranes are traditionally thought of as being made of pure energy, and that's all. This is because they are the fundamental building blocks of all other matter, and could not possibly be broken down further. However, M-theory is just a theory, and has got no experimental proof as yet.

Sub-atomic particles have been studied indirectly, I suppose, all through the last century. Most experiments prove the existence of sub-atomic particles by judging their interactions on other things, like the emission of photons that must be caused by the striking of electrons on the surface of a metal - i.e. the photoelectric effect. Particle accelerators, however, have always been the best - and the most expensive - way of studying sub-atomic particles, but I don't know when the first particle accelerator was built. There is an entry in the guide about this somewhere.

A graviton is the hypothetical carrier particle of the force of gravity. Again, its existence has not yet been proved, and M-theory's explanation is that the graviton is not tied down to one dimensional plane like other sub-atomic particles; gravitons can 'escape' into a higher dimension. This also explains why gravity is so much weaker than the other forces of nature.

There are plenty of different types of particles. I recommend the entry about the Standard Model of Particle Physics, if you haven't already read that. There should be a link to it from my entries.

Does that make sense to you?

For some reason it dose. For some even stranger reason I care that it dose.?.

I just printed out ~ 10 or so entries to read over the next couple day's and as I was digging around I couldn't help but notice that uh hum probably 3/4 of the entries on advanced physics related topics were written by you. Would it be to forward of me to ask if you are a profesor or a student, or maybe it is just a passion?

No. It would not be forward of you.

Well then dear schloar be ye which?

It is just a passion, really. I am no professor of physics.

I know an assistant physics prof. and I bet you could go head to head on the subject. I suppose it's not a great suprise, I've been on this kick for 6-8 months now, if I don't get board with if for another couple years....

Still intending to read alot of those entries in the near future. I'm a already overworked procrastinator.

When I read about this I thought of you. Do you have any ideas as to what the big secret is?


www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99996151


I also read "The Ultimate Origins..." and responded on that thread.