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At Long Last, Physicists Calculate the Proton's Mass
- Maro 18y agoThis reminds me of the story set in ~1900, when the gray-beard physicist tells his student not to study physics because all the big questions have been answered, and physics as a science will end in a few years.
- moxy 18y agoWhich also reminds me of a comment I just read about the singularity coming within 20 years. It just shows us how limited and distorted our vision of the future of science truly is.
- Anon84 18y agoThat student was (supposedly) Max Planck that went on to solve Black Body radiation and help give birth to Quantum Mechanics. In the same vein... There is also a book by Stephen Hawking called "Is the End in Sight for Theoretical Physics: An Inaugural Lecture" from 1980... http://www.amazon.com/End-Sight-Theoretical-Physics-Inaugural/dp/0521281784/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1227479530&sr=8-1 http://www.amazon.com/End-Sight-Theoretical-Physics-Inaugura...
- ars 18y agoThey didn't quite do it. They made a simulation which matches reality pretty well, but they worked backwards: they knew the value they wanted and kept tweaking the simulation till it worked. That's not quite as exciting as being able to calculate it from first principles.
- PieSquared 18y agoHeh... Interesting writing style... "Like a troubled teenager, the proton is a mess inside and just about impossible to figure out." I think I'll go now and learn as much as I can about the strong force. Sounds like something I won't learn about in school much.