Some of us think string theory only existed in order to give a bizarre twist to the fine-tuning of our universe and to create a basis for believing that there is an uncountable infinity of universes out there instead. Apart from that, it may be hard to see much point. We shall see.
Physics
Astrophysicist explains: Universe as three-dimensional donut
Paul Sutter: Buchert and a team of astrophysicists have deduced that our cosmos may be multiply connected, meaning that space is closed in on itself in all three dimensions like a three-dimensional donut.
Sabine Hossenfelder asks: Is time real?
Hossenfelder: If you are standing still and then begin to walk, that does not only change your position in space, it also changes which direction you are going in space-time. You are now moving into a direction that is a combination of both time and space.
Is there an alternative to dark matter?
Merritt: The most successful competitor is called modified Newtonian dynamics (MOND). Observations that are explained under the Standard Model by invoking dark matter are explained under MOND by postulating a modification to the theory of gravity.
At Mind Matters News: Quantum physics: Is everything determined? Egnor vs. Papineau, Round 6
Physicalist philosopher David Papineau is clearly unhappy with the implications of quantum mechanics, as neurosurgeon Michael Egnor sets them out.
Celebrity physicists are in a row over, literally, nothing
Epperson: Quantum mechanics is a physical theory, operative only in a physical universe. To contort it into service as a cosmological engine that generates the physical universe from “nothing” requires that the abstract concept of “nothing” be concretized as physical so that the mechanics of quantum mechanics can function. What’s more, if quantum mechanics is functional enough to generate the universe from nothing, then it’s not really nothing; it’s nothing plus quantum mechanics.
Does quantum physics really mean there is no solid reality?
There is no reason to consider our perceptions to be illusions unless there is a more correct perception that we could have at the same level of resolution.
Physicist: Fine tuning explains the ugliness of the Standard Model of the universe
Well, ugly is as ugly does. String theory sounds beautiful but unrealistic.
A unified theory of physics is within reach?
“It didn’t have to be this way. The charges of the elementary particles in our Universe could have been such that there was no way to unify any two or more of them into a single unified particle. It’s the combination of observational data and mathematics that offers us strong hints that the charges for elementary particles in the standard model aren’t arbitrary, but rather arise by virtue of being embedded into a grand unified theory framework.” But isn’t that an argument for God?
Columbia University mathematician Peter Woit offers a shrewd assessment of Stephen Hawking and pop physics
Hawking was looking for a unified theory and Woit thinks the idea is pretty much discredited now: “We now live in an environment where the idea that there may be a deeper, more unified theory has become completely discredited, through the efforts of many, with Hawking playing an unfortunate part.”
Can the universe learn?, physicists ask
If the universe is really similar to a machine learning system, as they suggest, then, no question, it was designed. All machine learning systems are designed. Are the physicists prepared to unpack that?
Will dualists win the consciousness argument?
If quantum measurements must include consciousness, the dualists are correct, says philosopher Angus Menuge: Consciousness exists in its own right.
Bill Dembski on what John Archibald Wheeler got right and wrong about “it from bit”
Dembski agrees that the universe is, at bottom, information but proposes “informational realism” as a sounder approach to unpacking the idea.
Cornelius Hunter responds to Sabine Hossenfelder’s claim that there is no free will
Hunter: This is no scientific hypothesis and this video shows why this claim is false.
In previously unpublished letter, Einstein suggests that new physics discoveries might come from studying animals
Would Einstein count birds’ use of magnetic sensing for migration?