Tag Archives: general relativity

The Theory Of Theories.

Otherwise known as the scientific method, or How Science Works. You were probably taught the basics of this in secondary school/high school/your local equivalent, but the number of physics undergraduates who came through my university not having the first clue about how science works is large enough that I suspect it’s not quite being hammered into people’s brains the way it should be. Which is a shame1, because not knowing anything about the scientific method is what allows so much anti-science to flourish in the press and media at large. I guarantee you homeopathy – for example — wouldn’t last a second in a world where people were the least bit curious about what was going on under the bonnet, and neither would the hundreds of news “stories” about how chocolate is actually good for us.

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The Shape Of The Universe.

(Click on that for the full picture. DO IT. DO IT NOW.)

This question plopped into my inbox like a month ago now.

Name: Justin M.
Question: How can physicists determine the shape of the universe, and what implications might the different speculated shapes of the universe have?

And I’ve been avoiding it ever since, because if you mean what I think you mean it’s an insanely hard subject to try to explain to somebody who hasn’t done, say, three years of an undergraduate physics degree course.

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If Cats Were Scientists.

Josh asks

 String theory. What the very fuck is it.

I was going to chide you for swearing on this blog, Josh; it’s a family space and a small child could happen by and have their brain infected with that nasty language. Then I remembered that I fucking hate string theory – I truly detest it – and that a sizeable percentage of the next thousand words I write describing it are going to be swear words. On this one occasion, therefore, you are forgiven.

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