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Physicists finally nail the proton’s size, eliminating an anomaly

quantamagazine.org

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Re: Physicists finally nail the proton’s size, eliminating an anomaly

#5

I think in some areas of physics, such as high-energy physics, there is not much left to discover. The Standard Model works. What branches of physics are likely to see progress?

I guess it's hard to say, because we don't know what we don't know. The famous example is Newtonian physics which seemed to perfectly explain everything.... until new tools and methods came out that were capable of showing it break down under extreme circumstances. That's how we ended up with Einsteinian physics, where it accounted for the old model and the new observed discrepancies.

So... how do we know that we will not find some bizarre scenario in the future the throws the Standard Model into a similar existential crisis?

I say keep your mind open.

Re: Physicists finally nail the proton’s size, eliminating an anomaly

#6

I think in some areas of physics, such as high-energy physics, there is not much left to discover. The Standard Model works. What branches of physics are likely to see progress?

The standard model lacks gravity.

Re: Physicists finally nail the proton’s size, eliminating an anomaly

#7

I think in some areas of physics, such as high-energy physics, there is not much left to discover. The Standard Model works. What branches of physics are likely to see progress?

Gravity, dark energy, dark matter. There is still a lot to discover.

Re: Physicists finally nail the proton’s size, eliminating an anomaly

#8

I think in some areas of physics, such as high-energy physics, there is not much left to discover. The Standard Model works. What branches of physics are likely to see progress?

The standard model still doesn’t explain gravity, dark matter, or dark energy. There are still ways to go.

Re: Physicists finally nail the proton’s size, eliminating an anomaly

#9
post #5

I think in some areas of physics, such as high-energy physics, there is not much left to discover. The Standard Model works. What branches of physics are likely to see progress?

I guess it's hard to say, because we don't know what we don't know. The famous example is Newtonian physics which seemed to perfectly explain everything.... until new tools and methods came out that were capable of showing it break down under extreme circumstances. That's how we ended up with Einsteinian physics, where it accounted for the old model and the new observed discrepancies. So... how do we know that we wil…

Einstein's theory hasn't yet been reconciled with quantum theory. That's a good place to watch for progress.

Re: Physicists finally nail the proton’s size, eliminating an anomaly

#10

I think in some areas of physics, such as high-energy physics, there is not much left to discover. The Standard Model works. What branches of physics are likely to see progress?

Someone please help correct my intuition here:

the harder it is to find flaws in the Standard Model, the harder it would be to use such new physics in engineering.

Basically I'm curious whether continuing failures to find new physics can be taken as evidence that, if and when we find the new physics, it will be very difficult to apply.

I'm not against science for its own sake, however. Just more of an engineer than a scientist, myself.

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