Has Elegance Betrayed Physics? Frank Wilczek

Has elegance betrayed physics? Frank Wilczek

Citation: Physics Today 71, 9, 57 (2018); doi: 10.1063/PT.3.4022 View online: https://doi.org/10.1063/PT.3.4022 View Table of Contents: http://physicstoday.scitation.org/toc/pto/71/9 Published by the American Institute of Physics

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theories. String theory has failed to de- liver concrete predictions, let alone suc- cessful ones, as have other, less heralded high-theory approaches. While no part of that gloomy story is entirely wrong, it is seriously incom- plete, and it features some premature burials. The past 30 years have been a IKONSTUDIO / ISTOCK / THINKSTOCK golden age for physical cosmology. Al- though proton decay has not been observed, we have detected another pri- mary prediction of a unified field theory, small neutrino masses. The Higgs particle was discovered and its detailed study has begun. The era of gravitational-wave astronomy, full of promise, has com- menced. SUSY, proton decay, WIMPs, and axions are still very much live possibilities that continue to inspire hard experimental work and ingenuity around the world. And high theory has not to- tally abandoned the aspiration to de- scribe physical reality. Has elegance betrayed physics? Still, the malaise expressed by Hossenfelder is not baseless, and it is widely shared among physicists. But her abine Hossenfelder’s Lost in Math: diagnosis, that a search for beauty is lim- How Beauty Leads Physics Astray is an Lost in Math iting our vision, strikes me as odd. Let Sunusual book, at once intensely per- How Beauty Leads me insert a few words in defense of sonal and intellectually hard-edged. Al- Physics Astray beauty. Symmetry is at the core of the though I disagree with it on many points, standard model and helped us to dis- Sabine Hossenfelder I recommend the book both as a well- cover it. Modern physical cosmology Basic Books, 2018. written, moving intellectual autobiogra- also pivots on symmetry and simplicity, $30.00 phy and as an excellent exposition of both in its general relativistic founda- some frontiers of foundational theoreti- tions and in its choice of initial condi- cal physics, largely told through dialogs tions. Also, the systematic use of beauti- with leading figures in the field. ful ideas from topology has been an Theoretical physicist Hossenfelder is physics remains what it has been since extremely fruitful source of inspiration both passionate about the mission of her the 1970s: a powerful and brilliantly suc- for condensed-matter physics, and beau- science and disappointed about its re- cessful foundational description under- tiful ideas from information theory are il- cent history. In the first paragraph of the lying all the observed phenomena of luminating physical algorithms and book, she says of her field, “In the temple nature that nonetheless leaves many quantum network design. We need more of knowledge, we are the ones digging in loose ends. beautiful ideas, not fewer. the basement, probing the foundations. Supersymmetry (SUSY), widely hailed Hossenfelder’s real target, when you . . . And when we find ourselves on to as a great step forward in unifying our strip away some unfortunate terminol- something, we call for experimentalists description of nature, has failed to mate- ogy, is not beauty but self-satisfaction, to unearth deeper layers. In the last cen- rialize at the Large Hadron Collider which encourages disengagement from tury, this division of labor between theo- despite a decade’s worth of experimen- reality. That attitude reaches its theoreti- rists and experimentalists worked very tation and anticipation. Dark matter has cal apex in the doctrine of “postempirical well. But my generation has been stun- yet to be identified despite enormous science,” which argues that social con- ningly unsuccessful.” efforts to detect weakly interacting mas- sensus, not experimental evidence, deter- Hossenfelder diagnoses the problem sive particles (WIMPs)—the candidates mines scientific validity. Here she quotes as overreliance on beauty as a guide to suggested by SUSY—or other compelling physicist George Ellis, rebuking physi- how the world works. Looking back on possibilities such as axions. Nor has the cists and philosophers who adopt that at- 20 years of effort in the pursuit of new nature of dark energy been elucidated. titude: “There are physicists now saying physical laws, she recounts a sad litany Hossenfelder might also have added the we don’t have to test their ideas because of frustrations and unfulfilled prophe- failure to observe proton decay, a central they are such good ideas. They’re say- cies. The standard model of particle prediction of mainstream unified field ing—implicitly or explicitly—that they

SEPTEMBER 2018 | PHYSICS TODAY 57 BOOKS

want to weaken the requirement that the- large extent the natural outcome of our that there’s much more to physics, and to ories have to be tested. To my mind that’s earlier, spectacular success. It’s been life, than digging deeper foundations. a step backward by a thousand years.” hard to make improvements. Patience Frank Wilczek In my view, the slow pace of new dis- may be required. In fact, we’ve already Massachusetts Institute of Technology coveries in fundamental physics is to a learned that it will be. The good news is Cambridge © CLIFFORD JOHNSON, COURTESY OF THE MIT PRESS

A graphic textbook imagines The Dialogues Conversations about the Nature conversations about physics of the Universe Clifford V. Johnson common misperception about comics Southern California physicist Clifford V. MIT Press, 2017. is that the medium is childish and Johnson attempts to use the same combi- $29.95 Abest left to newspaper strips or depic- nation of narrative and art to open up tions of superheroes. That view fails to physics. The book—“graphic textbook” acknowledge how the powerful combi- is the term that feels most appropriate— reader. The comics format, however, al- nation of text and visual depictions in depicts one-on-one conversations involv- lows Johnson to interweave into his text comics can draw readers in and keep ing a series of characters. Johnson’s conver- questions that the reader might ask; in them engaged with a profound or com- sationalists discuss concepts running the a sense he integrates the readers them- plex story. The recent rapid expansion of gamut from Maxwell’s equations to in- selves into the dialogues. comics into STEM (science, technology, finity, hypothesis, and experimentation. The characters are diverse in age and engineering, and mathematics) teaching The conversations in The Dialogues understanding, which can lead to abrupt and storytelling has demonstrated the mostly take place between a scientist and shifts in tone from chapter to chapter. medium’s potential. Apostolos Doxiadis a person on the street. The locations vary: Moving from a young girl analyzing and Christos Papadimitriou’s Logicomix a museum, a coffee shop, and a train, to how rice expands while cooking to a dis- (2009) was a fascinating dive into the name a few. The scientist responds to cussion of relativity and spacetime with life and work of philosopher and mathe- questions or skepticism and explains an adult fan of science does create an in- matician Bertrand Russell; the Science complicated theories. Often the conver - teresting sense of narrative progression. Comics series from Macmillan has pro- sations end with some questions left The varying levels of scientific discus- duced volumes dense with facts but en- unanswered, perhaps an attempt to sion, however, make it unclear who the dearing to read; and artists like Maki pique readers’ interest and encourage book is intended for. Naro and Rosemary Mosco have blended them to undertake further study and con- The greatest problem with graphic science and comics to make complicated sideration. If a book like The Dialogues works is that the art must effectively sup- concepts more accessible to all readers. had no art, the conversations could seem port the story. The art must be engaging The Dialogues: Conversations about the one-sided, giving the effect of a narrator in its own way, as bad art can be just as Nature of the Universe by University of rather straightforwardly addressing the detrimental to the novel or textbook as a

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