A Discussion With Dawkins And Krauss

Join Richard Dawkins and Lawrence Krauss as they discuss a host of topics.

String Theory: The Only Game In Town?

Michio Kaku discusses the Higgs Boson, Dark Energy, Dark Matter and String Theory as being the only game in town.

Was Einstein Wrong?

Michio Kaku discusses the recent report of finding neutrinos traveling faster than the speed of light.  A clear explanation of probably what happened in the experiment.

A Universe Not Made For Us

The Multiverse: Closing The Knowledge Gap Or Creating More Gaps?

Alan Lightmam has written a lengthy but interesting article in Harper's Magazine concerning the hypothesis of a multiverse. 

Richard Feynman: No Ordinary Genius

This 90-minute 1993 BBC production presented the professional and recreational life of one of the 20th Century's greatest scientists:  Nobel Prize-winning physicist Richard Feynman.  Besides an interesting portrayal of an eccentric genius, it should give you a deeper sense of what science is and how it interacts with the arts.  Enjoy.

Cosmic Connections

Lawrence Krauss presents this lecture on how all of us are deeply connected to each other and the cosmos as a whole.  Enjoy 45-minutes of wonder, poetry and beauty (just don't call it "spiritual").

Guide For Skeptics Of Determinism

Massimo Pigliucci has posted on his opinion that physics has not ruled out indeterminism, thus the possibility of some sort of free will.

The Fabric Of The Cosmos

If you are a lay person and are interested in understanding the Cosmos, this blogger recommends bookmarking this PBS video website and watching the four (4) hour-long programs in the series entitled The Fabric of the Cosmos. 

NOVA | The Fabric of the Cosmos: What Is Space?
NOVA | The Fabric of the Cosmos: The Illusion of Time
NOVA | The Fabric of the Cosmos: Quantum Leap
NOVA The Fabric of the Cosmos:  Universe or Multiverse?

The Nature Of Nothingness

The New Scientist has posted a series of articles looking at nothingness.  It is something.  For the Cliff Notes version, view this 3-minute video.

Science Is Excited About Maybe Being Wrong

A Multiverse?

Clifford Johnson was interviewed by NOVA in which he explained the idea of a multiverse.  Included in this interview was clarification of where this idea rests in scientific thought, as well as how science handles new ideas.

Mathematics And Cosmology

Joe Malkevitch has written an essay for the American Mathematical Society entitled Mathematics and Cosmology.  Although somewhat lengthy, it is an excellent history of physics and cosmology with an emphasis on the impact mathematics has had on our understanding of the universe.

The Scale Of The Universe

John Loftus has posted on the scale of the known universe.  Where is god?  Not a rhetorical question.  Ponder this ---

Time: The Mysterious 4th Demension

New Scientist has posted several articles on the subject of time.  Thought-provoking and interesting.

What Is Nothing?

The BBS has presented a TV program on the concept of nothing. Enjoy and have your consciousness expanded. "A vacuum is nature's default state." Sound waves do not travel within a vacuum, but light does. How?

Realism and Idealism

The current issue of eSkeptic presents a reprint of a 1993 article analyzing Realism, Idealism, Physics, the Paranormal and religion. It seems valid 17 years later.

The First Cause Argument

According to Wikipedia, the cosmological argument is an argument for the existence of a First Cause (or instead, an Uncaused cause) to the universe, and by extension is often used as an argument for the existence of an "unconditioned" or "supreme" being, usually then identified as God.

Theists argue that the Big Bang was the beginning of space, time, energy and matter. Since there was "nothing" prior to this event, it must have been caused by this "First Cause"/"Uncaused Cause".

It is the opinion of this blogger that this is essentially an unsupported assertion. Since physics presently is unable to clearly present a falsifiable hypothesis regarding what "caused" the Big Bang and our universe, the most rational stance to take seems to be "presently, we do not know".

However, science has presented us with some reasonable possibilities that perhaps will rise to a testable hypothesis regarding the origin of our universe. Cosmology, physics and mathematics are looking within quantum mechanics for answers, as there is some evidence that our universe, indeed, came from "nothing". M-Theory, which this blogger recently posted about, is a strong candidate presently for the elusive "Theory of Everything".

Since our universe began from simple foundations and gradually became more complex, is seems reasonable to use Occam's Razor to suggest that the "cause" of our universe was a simple unintelligent agency rather that a complicated diety. This is consistent with the observation that there is no true evidence for a god.

Wes Morrison has published a 14-page paper analyzing the Kalam Cosmological Argument as proposed by William Lane Craig.

M-Theory

The most recent "theory of everything" is M-Theory, as Hawking's The Grand Design concludes.

Following is a basic introduction to this concept from wikipedia.org:

In the early years of the 20th century, the atom - long believed to be the smallest building-block of matter - was proven to consist of even smaller components called protons, neutrons and electrons, which are known as subatomic particles. Beginning in the 1960s, other subatomic particles were discovered. In the 1980s, it was discovered that protons and neutrons (and other hadrons) are themselves made up of smaller particles called quarks. Quantum theory is the set of rules that describes the interactions of these particles.

In the 1980s, a new mathematical model of theoretical physics called string theory emerged. It showed how all the particles, and all of the forms of energy in the universe, could be constructed by hypothetical one-dimensional "strings," infinitely small building-blocks that have only the dimension of length, but not height or width. Further, string theory suggested that the universe is made up of multiple dimensions. We are familiar with height, width, and length as three dimensional space, and time gives a total of four observable dimensions. However, string theories initially supported the possibility of ten dimensions—the remaining 6 of which we can't detect directly. This was later increased to 11 dimensions based on various interpretations of the ten dimensional theory that led to five partial theories as described below. Super-gravity theory also played a significant part in establishing the existence of the 11th dimension.

These "strings" vibrate in multiple dimensions, and depending on how they vibrate, they might be seen in 3-dimensional space as matter, light, or gravity. It is the vibration of the string which determines whether it appears to be matter or energy, and every form of matter or energy is the result of the vibration of strings.

String theory, as mentioned above, ran into a problem: another version of the equations was discovered; then another, and then another. Eventually, there were five major string theories. The main differences between each theory were principally the number of dimensions in which the strings developed, and their characteristics (some were open loops, some were closed loops, etc.). Furthermore, all these theories appeared to be correct. Scientists were not comfortable with five seemingly contradictory sets of equations to describe the same thing.

In the mid 90s, a string theorist named Edward Witten of the Institute for Advanced Study and other important researchers considered that the five different versions of string theory might be describing the same thing seen from different perspectives. They proposed a unifying theory called "M-Theory", in which the "M" is not specifically defined, but is generally understood to stand for "membrane". The words "matrix", "mother", "monster", "mystery" and "magic" have also been claimed. M-Theory brought all of the string theories together. It did this by asserting that strings are really 1-dimensional slices of a 2-dimensional membrane vibrating in 11-dimensional space.

Status

M-Theory is not yet complete, but the underlying structure of the mathematics has been established and is in agreement with not only all the string theories, but with all of our scientific observations of the universe. Furthermore, it has passed many tests of internal mathematical consistency that many other attempts to combine quantum mechanics and gravity had failed. Unfortunately, until we can find some way to observe higher dimensions (impossible with our current level of technology) M-Theory has a very difficult time making predictions which can be tested in a laboratory. Technologically, it may never be possible for it to be "proven." Some cosmologists are drawn to M-Theory because of its mathematical elegance and relative simplicity. Physicist and author Michio Kaku has remarked that M-Theory may present us with a "Theory of Everything" which is so concise that its underlying formula would fit on a t-shirt.^[1] Stephen Hawking originally believed that M-Theory may be the ultimate theory but later suggested that the search for understanding of mathematics and physics will never be complete.^[2]

The Grand Design

Stephen Hawking's new book The Grand Design has created some controversy. However, all he is saying is that god "is not necessary" to explain the creation of the universe. This is not a new idea and is similar to what science says about evolution.

A recent blog post on the Freethought & Rationalism Discussion Board sums up this controversy:

"When a scientists says they think that a god is necessary, based on
something outside of their area of expertise, creationists tout their
opinion as something we should all accept at face value, because they're
scientists, dammit, isn't that what we atheists should respect?

When a scientist says they think a god isn't necessary, based on
something inside their area of expertise, the creationists sneer at them
for some imagined failure.

And they're the morally superior ones?"