sally mckay and lorna mills

Lorna Mills and Sally McKay

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I made some poorly substantiated complaints about string theory in a recent post. Roger Penrose, who might be the most famous mathematician alive, has some complaints too, which carry just a little bit more weight than mine! There is a series of his lectures -- Fashion, Faith and Fantasy in the New Physics of the Universe -- available free online at www.princeton.edu/WebMedia/lectures/ [many many thanks to Marc Ngui for the tip].

String theory relies on the theory of supersymmetry as a "central ingredient." Supersymmetry calls for each particle to have a supersymmetric particle. But discovering these particles is proving very difficult. Says Penrose:

If you haven't seen the supersymmetric partner that's because we haven't built a powerful enough accelerator yet. As long as you don't find these things you just say "Well, we've got to build a more powerful machine," and it doesn't get disproved.

Another famous fact about string theory is that it requires extra dimensions. Penrose says:

When I first heard about string theory I really thought it was a fantastic idea, I must say. It looked very beautiful...But then I learned it doesn't work unless space/time has 26 dimensions. Some people might say, "Oh well, space/time doesn't have 26 dimensions, so that's the end of that." But that wasn't the reaction of some people. They say, "Well, if it doesn't have 26 dimensions, we'll make it have 26 dimensions.

But Penrose is far from dismissive of the theory. He recognises that it is compelling. In doing research he talked to Richard Thomas, a pure mathematician, who had the following to say:

Everytime there is a prediction made [by string theorists], and suitably interpreted mathematically, they turn out to be true. We have no idea why they're true, they must come from a higher reason.

Penrose asks, how much of the current interest in string theory comes from fashion, and how much from physical motivations? He feels that it is not the latter, that string theory does not hold together, and is not a theory of quantum gravity. But, it's not just fashion either. Says Penrose:

I'm jolly glad that people are doing it, and something deep about physics is being revealed by these ideas.

I've only watched the first lecture in the series so far, and it was excellent. The math and a lot of the concepts are beyond my grasp, but an untrained person like me can certainly follow the basic ideas, and the overhead projector diagrams and careful logic are a welcome antidote to the whizz-bang graphics of Brian Greene's Elegant Universe series.

TV screen gif by Sally McKay

Tom Sherman, "How To Watch Television", from Cultural Engineering (Ottawa: National Gallery of Canada, 1983), p.56

Sit so close, you can't follow the action. The edits come too fast this close. Turn the channel selector. Turn it again.Turn the contrast up. If you have a focus control, turn it so the image is grainy. Toughen up the image. Just a touch of fine tuning ... press your face on the screen. Keep your eyes open. It's beautitul up close. You can feel the charge on your face. You can sense it when you close your eyes. The cool light is red inside.

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