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10 July 2009 9:00 AM
String Theory Explained
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from THE MAGAZINE
The Atlantic's July/August issue is devoted to ideas that can change the world. Highlights:
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What a gift we have in this man, who can create a brilliant theory and explain it to anyone with a reasonable liberal education and an interest in the subject.
As an artist, I'm struck by how much more beautiful this kind of research and knowledge is than the stammerings of religion. Even the magnificent language of King James' England cannot transform the Bible's creation story into a tiny fraction of this theory's span and inherent majesty.
Rather than a pathetic human-centric picture of old, science is reveling a macro universe on a scale we struggle to comprehend -- so vast and intricate that we may have to evolve as a species before we are able to really grasp it.
Now, Greene and others are showing us an equally majestic and vast micro-universe that reaches -- how far? in the "other" direction.
This combined universe -- which makes the word "infinite" seem inadequate -- seems indifferent to us -- unlike the myths presented to us by religions. And consequently infinitely more majestic and beautiful -- making us even more remarkable because this universe, rather than some kind of playpen for god or gods, can be plumbed by us and its nature gradually decoded.Or, possibly, by more evolved descendants, if we survive.
Thank you Dr, Greene!