Sharp images blur universal picture

[Anonymous]

Article in Nature (Requires free subscription to the site)

ABSTRACT

Hubble measurements suggests Universe isn't as lumpy as it should be.
31 March 2003

JOHN WHITFIELD

Like the pixels of a photo, space, time and gravity should be in pieces at the smallest scales.<image removed>

Physicists' notions of the Universe could be in trouble. New measurements from the Hubble Space Telescope hint that space is smooth, not grainy. Without graininess, our current theories predict that the Big Bang was infinitely hot and dense - tough to explain, to say the least.

Two groups have peered at distant stars and galaxies, and seen a pin-sharp picture. This, they say, is at odds with quantum physics' prediction that space, time and gravity are split into pieces at the smallest scales, like the pixels of a photograph. If this were the case, the picture should have been blurry, they argue.

 

[intaglio]

I remember seeing this reported in New Scientist(subscription to the site costs). It has implications about whether gravity is quantum in nature and, IIRC, about the existence or not of the Planck length.

To be honest I think the real problem we face is that the foundations of modern physics - Einsteinian and Quantum mechanics - are coming up to 80 years old. More than that they were primarily based on James Clark Maxwells work which puts the foundation back over a century. These formulations have been supported by observation until now but with the increase in sensitivity of instruments they are starting to show holes.

In a way it is like the "replacement" of Newtonian Mechanics with Relativity and Quantum mechanics. In practice Newtonian mechanics is still used for day to day work even though on the smallest and largest of scales it is inaccurate. Another, more homely, example is the way we still use Euclidean geometry (the geometry of flat surfaces) to work out how to build a house even though it would be more accurate to use spherical geometry (non-euclidean) or even Relativity to allow for the distortion of space caused by gravity

How important will the new theory be? Well, Newtonian Mechanics made the Industrial Revolution possible. Quantum and Einsteinian Mechanics gave us the theoretical basis to work on nuclear power, semiconductors (and hence computers), global positioning and spaceflight.

What will a new Mechanics do? Gawd knows

 

[river_styx]

Not much because we all know by now how the establishment despise anything that could prove them wrong and make them appear less intelligent than they actually are. As soon as a new theory is presented you'll get some little old man pop up to explain why it's wrong and has, in actual fact, been proven wrong decades earlier.
Thus it will take years for the first kitchen sink scientist to demonstrate his or hers brand spanking new world changing research that cannot and never will be debunked, until the technology out grows the science again of course.