Measurement Shows the Electron's Stubborn Roundness (scientificamerican.com)

OneHundredAndTen writes: A new article in Nature reports of a new, extremely precise measurement of the electric dipole moment of the electron. The conclusion is that, within the margin of error of the measurement, the electron remains a perfect sphere. This implies that supersymmetric theories keep running out of corners to hide, that another nail is driven into their coffin, and that string theory looks less and less compelling. By lighting up the molecules with lasers, "the scientists were able to interpret how other subatomic particles alter the distribution of an electron's charge," reports Scientific American. "The symmetrical roundness of the electrons suggested that unseen particles aren't big enough to skew electrons into squashed oblong shapes, or ovals. These findings once again confirm a long-standing physics theory, known as the Standard Model, which describes how particles and forces in the universe behave."

Comments

Re:Does it even make sense?

[novakyu]

Yes.

Re:They don't confirm the Standard Model

[lgw]

Now if only the Standard Model were an actual theory, instead of a list of empirical observations.

There's plenty of theory behind the Standard Model. It's the core of modern physics. Observed results are explained mathematically, those models make predictions, and the predictions keep being verified. It's a very solid theory.

No one like it, because it's not elegant. There are just too many seemingly arbitrary fields and quantum numbers, and the math is nearly intractable. It's a big stinking mess that keeps successfully predicting all observations.

It's very clear now that string theory has failed at every level. It started as a quest to simplify the Standard Model, but the math is even worse, it has even more tunable parameters, and it keeps failing to predict anything. Perhaps we'd have a better alternative to the Standard Model if decades of brilliant minds weren't wasted chasing string theory nonsense.