10 November 2013

Please DO THINK about alpha=1/137.03...

The value of the fine structure constant alpha=1/137.03 is one of the great mysteries of nature. Understanding it will yield a Nobel prize.

So, who is working on understanding the fine structure constant? Search the arxiv: no result. Ask string theorists: nobody. (This fact alone shows that string theory is worthless.) Ask any supersymmetry researcher: no answer. (So supersymmetry is worthless.) Ask any quantum gravity researcher: no answer. (So quantum gravity is worthless as well.) Ask most bloggers, crackpots, and fringe scientists: no answer. Look for talk slides on the topic: nothing (except for cosmological variations, which are of no use and are all nonsense anyway.) A few crackpots "work" on the problem, but they are so obviously mistaken that it is not even worth spending time on reading their confused ideas.

People do not work on 137 and do not think about it. There is a big gap in physics here. Nobody has filled it, in the 100 years since it was discovered. Will you? Think about this: Einstein has not succeeded, neither has Feynman or Pauli, who thought about the problem for a long time. After them, researchers stopped trying.

Please change the situation. Try. Try even more. You WILL succeed.





6 comments:

  1. I agree, Clara.

    It is absurd, isn't it. There are all these grand theories that are preposterously difficult to test experimentally. But even if you could test them, what good are they? Instead of answers, they only provide excuses for not being able to provide answers.

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    1. On the other hand, my knowledge of these theories is so non-existent that my opinion of them can only be fairly regarded as worthless.

      (Even if I was right, there is no merit to being right but for the wrong reasons -- or something like that.)

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  2. Feynman said that every good physicists thinks about alpha. There do not seem to be many good physicists these days...

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  3. Vladimir, that is a good point. So a physicist cannot be good if he is not funded?

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    1. Clara, nobody can be good if not funded. Worse, funding is a necessary, but not a sufficient condition ;-)

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