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At Forbes: Brilliant new ideas that should die for the sake of physics

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Image result for supersymmetry NASA
Supersymmetry theory/Sky & Telescope, Gregg Dinderman. NASA

In the view of physicist Ethan Siegel at Forbes, the doomed ideas are proton decay, modified gravity, supersymmetry, Technicolor, and WIMP-based dark matter.

Supersymmetry is, of course, Cool, so it is immortal, irrespective of evidence. But Siegel cautions,

While there are many elegant reasons to favor supersymmetry, the fact is that these particles should exist at approximately the same masses as the highest-mass Standard Model particles. With the advent of the LHC, we have determined that if these particles exist, they are many times heavier than the Standard Model particles, so much so that they would no longer solve the mass-difference problem. As a theory to explain this hierarchy problem, supersymmetry is completely dead. More.

<em>Teapot</em> Cobalt Blue Of course, it might be possible for proponents to save the day by hinting at a social justice component to the theory, before outright incorporating social justice concepts into it. After all, we’ve already got algebra is racist, science is sexist, and engineering is oppressive. In a science world where evidence? matters so much less than it used to and where the science boffins are simply not up to the task of combatting the problem, supersymmetry can be assured of a long run.

See also: Post-modern physics: String theory gets over the need for evidence

The multiverse is science’s assisted suicide

Question for multiverse theorists: To what can science appeal, if not evidence?

and

Nature: Stuck with a battle it dare not fight, even for the soul of science. Excuse me guys but, as in so many looming strategic disasters, the guns are facing the wrong way.

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