The end of the world as we know it?

[aardvark]

Scientists Discover a Jewel at the Heart of Quantum Physics - Wired Science

"Our understanding of the universe is about to be blown wide open and we are on the brink of a new era."

I don't understand any of it, but the picture's pretty.

[MarillionFan]

This is nonsense. Everyone knows that the universe is made up of Pixie dust.

[Old Greg]

This is nonsense. Everyone knows that the universe is made up of Pixie dust.

Is this related to the elves in hyperspace?

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Machine_elf

[doodab]

Makes me think of 'wholeness and the implicate order' and my own made up metaphysics. Would be awesome if they prove me right

[Mich the Tester]

Just as I always thought. At the centre of everything is a translucent blob.

[MyUserName]

Just as I always thought. At the centre of everything is a translucent blob.

Are you saying that MF is the centre of the universe?!

[Ticktock]

Are you saying that MF is the centre of the universe?!

He certainly thinks he is.

[OwlHoot]

Scientists Discover a Jewel at the Heart of Quantum Physics - Wired Science

"Our understanding of the universe is about to be blown wide open and we are on the brink of a new era."

I don't understand any of it, but the picture's pretty.

AIUI it's a more convenient (than Feynman diagrams) way of calculating scattering amplitudes, i.e. given a set of interacting particles and fields, predicting the relative probabilities of certain output particles and (?) their directions.

But I believe it is all currently predicated on something called supersymmetry, which hasn't yet actually been observed. Much as physicists want this to exist, their hopes are looking increasingly forlorn, and more and more physicists are skeptical that it's any more than an elegant fiction.

There was a paper on it last week in the ArXiv: The Amplituhedron

Is it me, or would a better name have been either amplihedron or even amplitudahedron? The name they chose, "amplituhedron", seems a bit jarring and neither fish nor fowl, as if J J Thomson had dubbed the electron the electricaltron

[hyperD]

AIUI it's a more convenient (than Feynman diagrams) way of calculating scattering amplitudes, i.e. given a set of interacting particles and fields, predicting the relative probabilities of certain output particles and (?) their directions.

But I believe it is all currently predicated on something called supersymmetry, which hasn't yet actually been observed. Much as physicists want this to exist, their hopes are looking increasingly forlorn, and more and more physicists are skeptical that it's any more than an elegant fiction.

There was a paper on it last week in the ArXiv: The Amplituhedron

Is it me, or would a better name have been either amplihedron or even amplitudahedron? The name they chose, "amplituhedron", seems a bit jarring and neither fish nor fowl, as if J J Thomson had dubbed the electron the electricaltron

[OwlHoot]

Darn - I can't view videos at cliento, as they are paranoid about security.