[FRIAM] Unstrung

[Robert Holmes]

On 10/3/06, phil henshaw <pfh at synapse9.com> wrote:
>
>  So I picked up last week's New Yorker to find one of it's thorough and
> insightful articles of the same name, in this case by Jim Holt on the demise
> of string theory, and the books by Smolin and Woit.  What caught my
> attention was the apparent fact that what caused string theory to suddenly
> take over all of theoretical physics is that physics has run out of data!
> Apparently everything they've thought of trying to explain has been
>


Errrr...how to put this politely? Rubbish! The following lists are by by no
means definitive but there's enough content to establish the falsity of
"everything they've thought of trying to explain has been":
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Physics#Future_directions
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unsolved_problems_in_physics

I think you may be reading more into Holt's comment about "the absence of
data in physics" than is intended (BTW, article is still available at
http://www.newyorker.com/critics/atlarge/).  It seems to be a somewhat
tongue-in-cheek comment that occupies less than half a sentence and Holt
does not expand on it. IMHO, Holt gives much more weight to the "sociology"
explanation.

R
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