5 ms·

Signs of a Stranger, Deeper Side to Nature’s Building Blocks

71 points by nature24 13y ago

cjensen 13y ago
Extraordinary claims... as summarized by some guy's foundation's website.
- Whitespace 13y ago
  James Simons is a billionaire and ran one of the world's most successful hedge funds[0]. It's not directly related to physics, but he did donate a lot to SUNY Stony Brook's science departments (Renaissance Tech is next door to USB) [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Simons https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Simons
  - dlazerka 13y ago
    Billionaire title doesn't make scientific claims any more true. Tom Cruise may be billionaire too, but claims to believe in some crap, for whatever reasons. Just to make my point clear, I'm not against J. Simons. I'm against using billionaire titles for defending scientific theories. The article seems to be published in the Journal of High Energy Physics, which is considered seriously by physicists [0]. That title would be a valid response to schlagetown, of course. [0] http://www.scimagojr.com/journalrank.php?area=3100&category=3106&country=all&year=2011&order=sjr&min=0&min_type=cd http://www.scimagojr.com/journalrank.php?area=3100&category=...
    - Whitespace 13y ago
      It wasn't clear in my comment, but I wasn't addressing the parent's "extraordinary claim" comment, but the "some guy" part. TBH I didn't get through the article because my BS-meter went off.
  - selimthegrim 13y ago
    Simons invented a lot of the math that people use to look at this sort of stuff, e.g. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chern%E2%80%93Simons_form http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chern%E2%80%93Simons_form
- jerf 13y ago
  While the whole holographic thing does indeed smell of pseudoscience, it's the real deal: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holographic_principle http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holographic_principle (and if you still don't believe me, check out the names on Wikipedia's references). I suppose it lies past the frontier where even the interested layman can no longer tell the difference anymore.
schlagetown 13y ago
So cool! And quite a good article too - presents quite a mindbending topic in a graspable, compelling manner.
D9u 13y ago
The truth is, we don't really know as much as we think we do. Copernicus and Galileo were both branded as heretics in their day.
selimthegrim 13y ago
Horowitz was my instructor for graduate quantum mechanics and I knew a few of his students. He's the real deal, and apparently well known for some important string theory in the eighties. Think of him as the Charlie Weis of physics (complete with swollen hands due to poor circulation)
lakethun 13y ago
This seems very, very strange but seems to be at least tolerated in the Physics world. It was published in a serious journal and has been presented at seminars and meetings. I could not find any discussion - everyone may think it is crazy or wrong or untestable but I just couldn't find anything in writing.

71 points by nature24 13y ago

cjensen 13y ago

Extraordinary claims... as summarized by some guy's foundation's website.

Whitespace 13y ago
James Simons is a billionaire and ran one of the world's most successful hedge funds[0]. It's not directly related to physics, but he did donate a lot to SUNY Stony Brook's science departments (Renaissance Tech is next door to USB) [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Simons https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Simons
- dlazerka 13y ago
  Billionaire title doesn't make scientific claims any more true. Tom Cruise may be billionaire too, but claims to believe in some crap, for whatever reasons. Just to make my point clear, I'm not against J. Simons. I'm against using billionaire titles for defending scientific theories. The article seems to be published in the Journal of High Energy Physics, which is considered seriously by physicists [0]. That title would be a valid response to schlagetown, of course. [0] http://www.scimagojr.com/journalrank.php?area=3100&category=3106&country=all&year=2011&order=sjr&min=0&min_type=cd http://www.scimagojr.com/journalrank.php?area=3100&category=...
  - Whitespace 13y ago
    It wasn't clear in my comment, but I wasn't addressing the parent's "extraordinary claim" comment, but the "some guy" part. TBH I didn't get through the article because my BS-meter went off.
- selimthegrim 13y ago
  Simons invented a lot of the math that people use to look at this sort of stuff, e.g. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chern%E2%80%93Simons_form http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chern%E2%80%93Simons_form
jerf 13y ago
While the whole holographic thing does indeed smell of pseudoscience, it's the real deal: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holographic_principle http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holographic_principle (and if you still don't believe me, check out the names on Wikipedia's references). I suppose it lies past the frontier where even the interested layman can no longer tell the difference anymore.

schlagetown 13y ago

So cool! And quite a good article too - presents quite a mindbending topic in a graspable, compelling manner.

D9u 13y ago

The truth is, we don't really know as much as we think we do. Copernicus and Galileo were both branded as heretics in their day.

selimthegrim 13y ago

Horowitz was my instructor for graduate quantum mechanics and I knew a few of his students. He's the real deal, and apparently well known for some important string theory in the eighties. Think of him as the Charlie Weis of physics (complete with swollen hands due to poor circulation)

lakethun 13y ago

This seems very, very strange but seems to be at least tolerated in the Physics world. It was published in a serious journal and has been presented at seminars and meetings. I could not find any discussion - everyone may think it is crazy or wrong or untestable but I just couldn't find anything in writing.