内容简介

A contrarian argues that modern physicists' obsession with beauty has given us wonderful math but bad science

Whether pondering black holes or predicting discoveries at CERN, physicists believe the best theories are beautiful, natural, and elegant, and this standard separates popular theories from disposable ones. This is why, Sabine Hossenfelder argues, we have not seen a major breakthrough in the foundations of physics for more than four decades. The belief in beauty has become so dogmatic that it now conflicts with scientific objectivity: observation has been unable to confirm mindboggling theories, like supersymmetry or grand unification, invented by physicists based on aesthetic criteria. Worse, these "too good to not be true" theories are actually untestable and they have left the field in a cul-de-sac. To escape, physicists must rethink their methods. Only by embracing reality as it is can science discover the truth.

作者简介

Sabine Hossenfelder has grown up in Frankfurt, Germany. She has a PhD in physics from the University of Frankfurt. Since 2006 she has written the popular weblog Backreaction. Her writing has been published, among others, in Scientific American, New Scientist, NOVA, Aeon, Nautilus, and Quanta Magazine.

Sabine is presently a Research Fellow at the Frankfurt Institute for Advanced...

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精彩摘录

我们在物理学中运用数学还有别的原因。除了让我们保持诚实，数学也是我们所知道的最经济、最清晰的术语体系。语言是任人打扮的小姑娘，其意义取决于上下文和阐释。但数学并不在意文化和历史。如果一千个人阅读同一本书，他们读到会是一千本不同的书；但如果一千个人去读同一个公式，他读到的就是同一个公式。不过，我们在物理学中运用数学的主要原因是，我们可以这么做。

——引自章节：第一章 物理学的隐秘规则

直觉是跟着经验来的。你可以通过视频游戏“量子移动”来得到关于量子力学的经验，完全不需要方程。这款游戏由丹麦奥胡斯大学的物理学家设计，玩家为量子问题找到有效解答时，比如将原子从一个势阱移到另一个势阱，就可以获得积分。模拟出来的原子遵循量子力学定律。这些原子看着不像小球，倒像一种古怪的流体，受不确定性原理约束，可以从一个地方隧穿到另一个地方。这些设定需要一定时间来适应。但让研究人员惊讶的是，他们发动群众资源，从玩家的策略中找到的最优解，比计算机算法找到的解更有效。在量子直觉方面，人类似乎击败了人工智能。至少目前如此

——引自章节：第六章 量子力学竟然可以理解？