The theory, which emerged in the 1970s as a way to unify the fundamental forces of nature, has profoundly shaped the landscape of particle physics.
M-theory is a theory in physics that unifies all consistent versions of superstring theory. The existence of such a theory was first conjectured by Edward Witten at a string theory conference at the University of Southern California in the Spring of 1995. Witten’s announcement initiated a flurry of research activity known as the second superstring revolution.
Prior to Witten’s announcement, string theorists had identified five versions of superstring theory. Although these theories appeared, at first, to be very different, work by several physicists showed that the theories were related in intricate and nontrivial ways. In particular, physicists found that apparently distinct theories could be unified by mathematical transformations called S–duality and T–duality. Witten’s conjecture was based in part on the existence of these dualities and in part on the relationship of the string theories to a field theory called eleven-dimensional supergravity.
Although a complete formulation of M-theory is not known, the theory should describe two- and five-dimensional objects called branes and should be approximated by eleven-dimensional supergravity at low energies. Modern attempts to formulate M-theory are typically based on matrix theory or the AdS/CFT correspondence.
Teenage climate activist responds to criticism, saying ‘when haters go after your looks and differences … you know you’re winning’
Scientists have identified the mechanism that lets geckos regrow severed limbs, and they may get it to work in humans.
Here’s a demo of a rendering engine I’ve been working on that allows for non-euclidean geometry.
Source Code and Executable:
https://github.com/HackerPoet/NonEuclidean
Music:
“Automatic Loving” — Dee Yan-Key
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This would be good for hoverboards and aircrafts.
Physicists have discovered a novel quantum state of matter whose symmetry can be manipulated at will by an external magnetic field. The methods demonstrated in a series of experiments could be useful for exploring materials for next-generation nano- or quantum technologies.
Close.
This makes for a microcosm of people on the outside looking in who do not follow on a regular basis. A basic headline of living forever followed by comments of doubt or silliness and the heat death of the universe. Of the experts, I like Sinclair’s answer best.
What do hideous mall t-shirts, emo bands from the mid-aughts, and gorgeously-wrought realist novels about dissolving marriages have in common? Simply this assertion: Life Sucks. And it does suck, undoubtedly, even for the happiest and/or richest among us, not one of whom is immune from heartbreak, hemorrhoids, or getting mercilessly ridiculed online.
Still, at certain points in life’s parade of humiliation and physical decay almost all of us feel a longing—sometimes fleeting, sometimes sustained—for it to never actually end. The live-forever impulse is, we know, driving all manner of frantic, crackpot-ish behavior in the fringier corners of the tech-world; but will the nerds really pull through for us on this one? What are our actual chances, at this moment in time, of living forever? For this week’s Giz Asks, we spoke with a number of experts to find out.
