Brian Greene on TV

[Guille]

Brian Greene appeared on TV speaking about string theory, his new book (The fabric of the cosmos), the TOE search and uses, and the origin of the universe. You can see the interview here:

http://homepage.mac.com/onegoodmove/...iangreene.html

what do you think about it?

[Steele]

I think he did a very awesome job. The average person might get lost every now and then though. Interesting overall.

[Guille]

Steele,

that's true. Someone thats never heard of string theory, big bang.....would get easily lost, but that was because Greene didn't have enough time for his explenations, don't you think?

I also wanted to post that when Greene is asked if Albert Einstein could have achieved a TOE if the string theory had existed in his time, made me think a lot, and in fact yes, if Einstein was here right now, he would solve the string theory creating the TOE. And as in Brian Greene's book The Elegant Universe explained that Special relativity solved the problem between Newton's and Maxwell's theories, general relativity solved the problem between Newton's and special relativity, and with this "TOE" theory (it was based in electromagnetic and gravity forces unifciation), Einstein wanted to solve the problem between General relativity and Quantum theory (actually, he was father of both theories) and with string theory he would eventually do this.

[AntonioLao]

Einstein wanted to solve the problem between General relativity and Quantum theory (actually, he was father of both theories) and with string theory he would eventually do this.

Einstein did not want to solve the problem between general relativity and quantum mechanics. In fact, Einstein dislike quantum mechanics so much that after his contributions in the 1930's he never went back to do any more investigations in QM although he did carry on lifelong arguments with Niels Bohr and he also started the EPR paradox, which is meant to discredit QM. Bohr is one of the founders for the old quantum theory applied to hydrogen atoms. The father of the old quantum theory is Max Planck and he did had doubts about his discovery. Einstein was responsible for the quantization of light as photons in a published paper on the photoelectric effects circa 1905, the same year for the paper on special relativity.

Later in life, Einstein tried to unify the gravitational force and EM force but he died in 1955 without any success and even did not give any hints of what future generations of physicists must do for the quantization of gravity.

[Guille]

Einstein did not want to solve the problem between general relativity and quantum mechanics. In fact, Einstein dislike quantum mechanics so much that after his contributions in the 1930's he never went back to do any more investigations in QM although he did carry on lifelong arguments with Niels Bohr and he also started the EPR paradox, which is meant to discredit QM. Bohr is one of the founders for the old quantum theory applied to hydrogen atoms. The father of the old quantum theory is Max Planck and he did had doubts about his discovery. Einstein was responsible for the quantization of light as photons in a published paper on the photoelectric effects circa 1905, the same year for the paper on special relativity.

Later in life, Einstein tried to unify the gravitational force and EM force but he died in 1955 without any success and even did not give any hints of what future generations of physicists must do for the quantization of gravity.

Good history class, althugh when I said that Einsteins was the father of quantum mechanics, I was obviously talking about the photoelectric effect which is actaully mentioned by Greene (he and his talk is suposed to be the center of the thread).

I knew that Einstein was completely against (it is mentioned in many other threads of the forum) the quantum theory.

Now, I have never get to know what Einstein was trying with his research in unifying EM and gravity: was he trying to quantize gravity or to geometrize EM??

[AntonioLao]

I knew that Einstein was completely against... Now, I have never get to know what Einstein was trying with his research in unifying EM and gravity: was he trying to quantize gravity or to geometrize EM??

Einstein was working on the 4-dimensional version of combining gravity field and electromagnetic field. Kaluza sent the 5-dimensional version to Einstein but the respond was lukewarm. So, it was mainly forgotten until it was revived by string theory.

Einstein was only bothered by the probabilistic approach to QM. He believed physical laws must be simple and deterministic. In my view, determinism is possible only if we make the assumption that the complete picture of the universe is the parallel existence of two worlds (matter and antimatter). Einstein had nothing to say about antimatter.

[davidgow77]

(Einstein) also started the EPR paradox, which is meant to discredit QM.

Can you tell me what EPR is please..... I would very much like to know.

DG

[Steele]

Here you go, David.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EPR_paradox

[AntonioLao]

In addition to Steele's site, Einstein called EPR paradox as a 'spooky action at a distance', that nothing can communicate faster than light, therefore QM must be wrong. But experiments show that the quantum world is indeed non-local, i.e., that measurements performed on one of the quantum pairs affect the other instantaneously no matter how far away, even opposite sides of the universe billions of light-years separation.

[jonnyflashbang]

would quantum wormholes help explain this spooky connection of entangled particles?
if so, you could explain spooky connection at a distance whilst by passing Einstein's work, you wouldn't be breaking the speed of light, as such.

I agree that Einstein would have come to like string theory because Brian Green says that becuase the vibration of a string gives it 'increased spatial extent' strings do not succumb to the uncertainty principle. I think Einstein would have liked this becuase he believed that the universe would be expalinable in beautiful and elegant mathematics, he believed in God and so he couldn't believe in a universe based on probability.

I think Einstein would also have liked the idea that again appears in Brian Green's writings, that strings, as they vibrate through the different dimensions, trace out a ''sheet'' or ''tube'' behind them (depending if the string is open or a closed loop, respectively), these ''sheets'' and ''tubes'' repair rips in space/time, preventing the chaos of the qunatum world from entering the macroscopic world.