“This unification of forces and motion has a simple consequence. In a particle theory, you can freely add all kinds of forces,… — Lee Smolin Copy Share Image
Every string theory that's been written down says the speed of light is universal. But other ideas about quantum gravity predict the… — Lee Smolin Copy Share Image
“Here's a simplified version of what the Stanford group did. They started with a much-studied kind of string theory-a flat four-dimensional spacetime… — Lee Smolin Copy Share Image
“The loop approach to quantum gravity is now a thriving field of research. Many of the older ideas, such as supergravity and… — Lee Smolin Copy Share Image
“The subject of this chapter is string theory, and I begin it with these reflections for two reasons. First, because the main… — Lee Smolin Copy Share Image
Just like an ordinary guitar string, a fundamental string can vibrate in different modes. And it is these different modes of vibration… — Lee Smolin Copy Share Image
“Basically, string theory is the development of this visionary idea in a context of a fixed background of space and time. Loop… — Lee Smolin Copy Share Image
“Louis and I worked on two projects. In the first we tried to formulate a gravitational theory based on the dynamics of… — Lee Smolin Copy Share Image
“In string theory, the situation is very different. The law of motion dictates the laws of the forces. This is because all… — Lee Smolin Copy Share Image
“Noncommutative geometry has turned up in several approaches to quantum gravity, including string theory, DSR, and loop quantum gravity. But none of… — Lee Smolin Copy Share Image
“This tells us that M theory, if it exists, cannot describe a world in which space os continuous and one can pack… — Lee Smolin Copy Share Image
“Both loop quantum gravity and string theory assert that there is an atomic structure to space. In the next two chapters we… — Lee Smolin Copy Share Image
“Finiteness is not the only example in string theory of a conjecture that is widely believed but so far unproved.” — Lee Smolin Copy Share Image
“Branes also opened up a whole new way of thinking about how our three-dimensional world might relate to the extra spatial dimensions… — Lee Smolin Copy Share Image
Some string theorists prefer to believe that string theory is too arcane to be understood by human beings, rather than consider the… — Lee Smolin Copy Share Image
“Because string theory is such a high-risk venture—unsupported by experiment, though very generously supported by the academic” — Lee Smolin Copy Share Image
“Extending Polyakov's argument, he found evidence that the string theory describing those emergent strings is actually a ten-dimensional supersymmetric string theory. Of… — Lee Smolin Copy Share Image
If string theory is a mistake, it's not a trivial mistake. It's a deep mistake and therefore kind of worthy. — Lee Smolin Copy Share Image
“Because string theory is such a high-risk venture—unsupported by experiment,” — Lee Smolin Copy Share Image
“This unification of forces and motion has a simple consequence. In a particle theory, you can freely add all kinds of forces, so there… — Lee Smolin Copy Share Image
“One field Faraday studied was the electric field. This is not a number but a vector, which we may visualize as an arrow and… — Lee Smolin Copy Share Image
“It is interesting to note that the quantum-mechanical revolution was made by a virtually orphaned generation of scientists. Many members of the generation above… — Lee Smolin Copy Share Image
“In fact, the particle-antiparticle annihilation and the closing of the string is necessary, if the theory is to be consistent with relativity, meaning the… — Lee Smolin Copy Share Image
Every string theory that's been written down says the speed of light is universal. But other ideas about quantum gravity predict the speed of… — Lee Smolin Copy Share Image
“Unfortunately, no one has ever successfully postulated a super-symmetry holding between two known particles. Instead, in all the supersymmetric theories the numbers of particles… — Lee Smolin Copy Share Image
Those who do good science do so because they choose problems that are suited to them. — Lee Smolin Copy Share Image
“Here's a simplified version of what the Stanford group did. They started with a much-studied kind of string theory-a flat four-dimensional spacetime with a… — Lee Smolin Copy Share Image
“The current crisis in particle physics springs from the fact that the theories have gone beyond the standard model in the last thirty years… — Lee Smolin Copy Share Image
“By the time I began my study of physics in the early 1970s, the idea of unifying gravity with the other forces was as… — Lee Smolin Copy Share Image
“These two discoveries, of relativity and of the quantum, each required us to break definitively with Newtonian physics. However, in spite of great progress… — Lee Smolin Copy Share Image
“So the challenge for any quantum theory of gravity is to give us a deeper understanding of Bekenstein's entropy and Hawking's temperature.” — Lee Smolin Copy Share Image
