 Cover of the hardcover edition | |
| Author | Lee Smolin |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Subject | Science |
| Publisher | Houghton Mifflin Harcourt |
Publication date | September 19, 2006 |
| Publication place | United States |
| Media type | |
| Pages | 416 pp |
| ISBN | 978-0-618-55105-7 |
| OCLC | 64453453 |
| 530.14 22 | |
| LC Class | QC6 .S6535 2006 |
| Preceded by | Three Roads to Quantum Gravity (2001) |
| Followed by | Time Reborn (2013) |
The Trouble with Physics: The Rise of String Theory, the Fall of a Science, and What Comes Next is a 2006 book by the theoretical physicist Lee Smolin about the problems with string theory. The book strongly criticizes string theory and its prominence in contemporary theoretical physics, on the grounds that string theory has yet to come up with a single prediction that can be verified using any technology that is likely to be feasible within our lifetimes. Smolin also focuses on the difficulties faced by research in quantum gravity, and by current efforts to come up with a theory explaining all four fundamental interactions. The book is broadly concerned with the role of controversy and diversity of approaches in scientific processes and ethics.
Smolin suggests both that there appear to be serious deficiencies in string theory and that string theory has an unhealthy near-monopoly on fundamental physics in the United States, and that a diversity of approaches is needed. He argues that more attention should instead be paid to background independent theories of quantum gravity.
In the book, Smolin claims that string theory makes no new testable predictions;[1] that it has no coherent mathematical formulation; and that it has not been mathematically proved finite.[2] Some experts in the theoretical physics community disagree with these statements.[3][4]
Smolin states that to propose a string theory landscape having up to 10500 string vacuum solutions is tantamount to abandoning accepted science:
The scenario of many unobserved universes plays the same logical role as the scenario of an intelligent designer. Each provides an untestable hypothesis that, if true, makes something improbable seem quite probable.[5]
- ^ The Trouble with Physics. p. xiv.
- ^ Finiteness is discussed at length in chapters 9 and 16 of The Trouble with Physics, especially pp. 278-281.
- ^ Polchinski, Joseph (2007). "All Strung Out? : A review of The Trouble with Physics and Not Even Wrong". American Scientist. Vol. 95, no. 1. p. 72. doi:10.1511/2007.63.72.
- ^ Motl, Luboš (October 28, 2004). "Lee Smolin: The Trouble with Physics: a review". The reference frame: Physics blog. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Author. Archived from the original on October 29, 2006.
- ^ Smolin, quoted in Riordan, Michael (February 1, 2007). "Stringing physics along". Physics World (Book review). Bristol, UK: Institute of Physics. ISSN 0953-8585.