Friday, February 17, 2023

Sabine Hossenfelder On "What's Going Wrong With Particle Physics?"


This video is a great, compact summary of the sociological problems with the particle physics field, essentially summing up the premises of her book Lost in Math, namely, that lots of the theories being pursued are either not really problems, or are solutions that are profoundly disfavored empirically but are still being doggedly pursued in ever more byzantine variations.

4 comments:

Onur Dincer said...

Excellent video, good summary of the problems in the way particle physics is studied by particle physicists for the last few decades. There is not much of a problem in the current level of particle physics itself as there is not much left to discover in the field of particle physics.

Onur Dincer said...

But there is still a lot to discover in cosmology. For instance, the Turokian mirror cosmology model that you favor (but with your Deurian modifications on it), which I also favor to some degree, is promising and worth investigating in the decades to come. Another cosmology model I favor to a degree is the Steinhardtian cyclic model (the current one so without strings, not the previous one with strings). I know you have some bias against cyclic models, but the Steinhardtian model seems promising and is testable in the near future, so also worth investigating in the coming decades.

andrew said...

High energy physics (HEP) is definitely not as healthy as astronomy and cosmology, for the simple reason that the volume of new data coming in from all manner of "telescopes" measuring things never before detectable is vast compared to the volume of data being generated by colliders (which overlaps significantly with prior HEP experiments).

Onur Dincer said...

True.