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The 11 Greatest Unanswered Questions of Physics

Posted by timothy on from the sound-of-falling-tree-in-empty-forest dept.

Adn writes: "Discover magzine has a cover story on the "..11 Greatest Unanswered Questions of Physics" and why answering these might lead to a new age of science.... the full article can be found at The National Academy Site. Almost brings to mind Hilbert's 11 questions on Mathematics which if solved were supposed to usher in a new era of logic and formalism."

2 of 55 comments (clear)

  1. The questions by cd_Csc · · Score: 5, Informative
    In case you don't want to download and skim the 105 page PDF, the questions are:

    What is the dark matter?
    What are the masses of the neutrinos, and how have they shaped the evolution of the universe?
    Are there additional spacetime dimensions?
    What is the nature of dark energy?
    Are protons unstable?
    How did the universe begin?
    Did Einstein have the last word on gravity?
    How do cosmic accelerators work and what are they accelerating?
    Are there new states of matter at exceedingly high density and temperature?
    Is a new theory of matter and light needed at the highest energies?
    How were the elements from iron to uranium made?

    The PDF gives a detailed explanation for each of these if you're interested: http://www.nationalacademies.org/bpa/reports/cpu/q 2c-public_release_version.pdf

  2. Disappointing by Euphonious+Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting
    After the buildup comparing the list to Hilbert's, I was disappointed to see how far from fundamental many of the questions were. The elaborations presuppose details of what are merely fashionable postulates, rather than mysterious facts, about the universe.

    The questions seem directed more at justifying big equipment expenditures than at taking on analyses of the numerous physical anomalies we already know about. Great advancements in the last twelve decades -- electromagnetics, quantum mechanics, the relativities -- arose from hard thought about phenomena that were already well-known, but contradicted received wisdom. They generally have not come from further measurements of already understood phenomena but involving bigger numbers.

    I'd much rather see a list of questions based on well-known phenomena that contradict fashionable theories, with the goal of replacing the latter with something less arbitrary.