I've heard that string theory has been largely discredited. Is this true? and based on what?
by 
mak
ANSWERS: 5
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Based on the fact that so far it hasn't made any predictions that can be tested, and as such it's nothing much more than mathematical "toy". http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/String_theory#Problems_and_controversy
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String theory has been generalised into M-theory where the strings are replaced with two dimensional membranes or even higher "branes". Some problems with string theory: All the difficult questions about why the particles have the masses they do, become even harder questions about why the topological landscape is chosen such that those masses and particles are produced. It's even more arbitrary if anything than the Standard Model. The predictions of string theory that we could perhaps test are mostly out of reach of our ability to devise experiments that could measure them - it is hoped that the Large Hadron Collider will be powerful enough to detect new particles that could help string theory or its successors, M-Theory.
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Well I guess it would depend. If it could be proven, it would have been already. To this extent then, it's not unlike religion. It's a theory that can't be proven right or wrong. . I know I'm not helping much, but largely discredited is hard to calculate guessing that not too many people even know what it is let alone understand it. . I discredit it (with my own conscientious ignorance in mind) based on not enough evidence to believe it to be true. It's a theory that was developed to explain anomalies in other calculations or observations. Again, similar to the ancient Egyptians saying the sun came out because it was Horus defeating the god of night. Once night came, Horus would ride his canoe under the earth to come back and win the battle again the next morning. Just a way to explain that which we can't explain. . That being said, if it does happen to be proven correct, I have no qualms with accepting it as truth.
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I have heard both that it is being discredited and becoming even more correct. they have now regrouped it into Mtheory (read Brian Green, Machio Kacku) these people work on this alot. I think it is just really hard to test thus why it is being thrown to the side for the time being.+3
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I don't think it has enough substance to be credited or discredited. It's more of an idea than a theory.
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