Thread: String Theory & the Big Bang

Here is his background:

Neil Turok

Chair of Mathematical Physics (1967)
Phone: +44 1223 337872
Mobile: +44 7810 143411
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DAMTP
Centre for Mathematical Sciences
Cambridge University
Cambridge CB3 0WA, UK

http://www.damtp.cam.ac.uk/user/ngt1000/

Basic concepts are explained in this book

"The Elegant Universe" by Brian Greene

This was also made into a television series which you can download via torrent. However the TV series was dumbed down for entertainment so I'd recommend the book.

Originally Posted by Milkman

This is only 3 minutes.

Does anyone have background knowledge of this concept. (I never took astronomy 101) and even if I did, it's hard to conceptualize. But he does use pieces of paper figuratively, to explain what he talking about.

Does HE know what day it is??

Originally Posted by Begbie

Basic concepts are explained in this book

"The Elegant Universe" by Brian Greene

Is the book understandable? Academic or for the layman?

I assume it was written for laypeople.

Well I understood it just, so definately for the layman but it's heavy stuff.

One problem is that theories are going out of fashion so fast that a book written 10 years ago becomes history of science rather than science. A good example of an outdated book is "A brief history of time" big bang was all the rage back then.

I don't really understand brane theory but it's somehow more satisfying than the universe appearing from nothing.

Originally Posted by Milkman

String Theory..

Nice thread

I don't know how or when classical physics and quantum physics will be reconciled. The work being done at the sub-atomic level is intriguing and is nullifying many previous assumptions. Brane theory is intriguing because it
provides an understandable, visual model for what might have been. Some very powerful telescopes will be coming online in the near future that will enable researchers to study cosmic events close to the time of the origin of the universe 13.5 billion years ago.

Get your noodles around this:











That might help clear it up a bit, if you follow it. Failing that, the guy with his back to us in the OP's first clip is Prof. Brian Cox. Youtube him as he is quite good as making this stuff make sense.

Originally Posted by Begbie

This was also made into a television series which you can download via torrent. However the TV series was dumbed down for entertainment so I'd recommend the book.

this is milky we are talking to here.

so I'd recommend the TV series.

I looked through them. They are quite interesting.

I have to admit that I had not made the connection between the anthropic principle and the multiverse theory. In hindsight it is quite obvious isn't it?

That idea we are all in a simulation is quite intriguing. A standard theme of science fiction for a long time. One would hope they have really good backup power. It also makes some alternative to the end of the universe, the big switch-off.

Interesting also the part about the further developement of intelligence. There is an alternative path of developement to the one he mentioned. Some believe that artificial intelligence would develop within the next few decades and we won't be able to control it.

What the speaker is talking about seems to be M Theory, not String Theory.

M Theory involves a different number of mathematical dimensions to String Theory. The fact that there is a different number of dimensions means you get the (mem)branes rather than the strings.

Eventually, some bright spark will reconcile quantum mechanics and the theory of relativity and we can all stop going to church.

The only certainly is that this person will not have been a frequenter of Teakdoor's Moronic Kiddies area.

Originally Posted by The_Ghost_Of_The_Moog

The only certainly is that this person will not have been a frequenter of Teakdoor's Moronic Kiddies area.

are you certain of that certainty? or is it just highly improbable ?

No string theory, but lots of Big Bang info and formation of the universe stuff (in an extremely readable format) can be found in "A Short History of Nearly Everything" by Bill Bryson.

Red sent, that was a boring and really crap book, very similar to reading a shopping list.

Watched the Youtube doco -- "What we still dont know" and was unimpressed.
The hypothesis put forward is based on some fairly flimsy theories. For example, what is this mysterious "anti-gravity force" they talk of that is so precise it must be tuned to trillions of trillions of trillions degrees to make our universe work? I have never heard of it and I doubt anyone else here has either.
And the size of the brain being a limiting factor in intelligence. Their theory seems to be that as brains get bigger they run slower because of distance between the working parts. Sounds logical, but in reality its a crock of shit. They brush over these fundamental issues as if they are a given proven scientific fact in this doco in order to further expand their hypothesis.

Hardly something to be taken seriously.

Originally Posted by FailSafe

No string theory, but lots of Big Bang info and formation of the universe stuff (in an extremely readable format) can be found in "A Short History of Nearly Everything" by Bill Bryson.

Ignore begbieand his red, I like reading bill bryson and thought it was a pretty good book for the lay person

The Elegant Universe