Clockwork cosmos

摘要

Theoretical physicist Lee Smolin's recent books have been about crises in physics so catastrophic that physicists need to completely rethink their methods. In his 2006 book, The Trouble with Physics (Houghton Mifflin), he stated controversially that a cabal of researchers working on what he thought was a moribund theory of fundamental physics - string theory - was preventing a new generation of clever young thinkers from working on other, rival theories. Through his brilliant writing and articulate arguments, readers took him seriously. One string theorist told me that he struggled to convince non-physicists that he wasn't a charlatan after the publication of Smolin's book.