This is a pretty interesting article about a book by physicist Lawrence Krauss called Hiding in the Mirror. In the book, Krauss apparently slams String Theory, currently one of the major themes in the efforts of the physics community to develop a “theory of everything”.
The reason he is so scathing is that it involves positing that “subatomic particles are actually tiny vibrating strings of energy, each 100 billion billion times smaller than the protons at the nucleus of an atom”. Further, “there also must be more physical dimensions to reality than the three of space and one of time that we can perceive. The most popular string models require 10 or 11 dimensions. What we perceive as solid matter is mathematically explainable as the three-dimensional manifestation of “strings” of elementary particles vibrating and dancing through multiple dimensions of reality, like shadows on a wall. In theory, these extra dimensions surround us and contain myriad parallel universes.”
The issue is that noone has proposed anyway to test this hypothesis. Again, to quote from the article – “no one has been able to devise a feasible experiment for which string theory predicts measurable results any different from what the current wisdom already says would happen. Scientific Method 101 says that if you can’t run a test that might disprove your theory, you can’t claim it as fact.” Further – “That’s not a Theory of Everything, it’s a Theory of Anything, sold with whizzy PBS special effects.” Nobel Prize-winner Robert Laughlin is quoted as saying “String theory is textbook post-modernism fueled by irresponsible expenditures of money.”
In view of the way “respectable” scientists criticize Intelligent Design, this is all pretty interesting.