Threnody for Strings

Peter Woit has this post up on David Gross's talk at Solvay. (Lubos weighed in earlier, but he mostly just plays defense). The most popular interpretation seems to be that String Theory has hit a bit of an impasse. This has happened before, and each time some new breakthrough has occurred to inspire the faithful. I found many of the comments on Peter's blog interesting, including some I could understand.

The most inexplicable thing in theoretical physics for me today is the fanatical and religious way so many in String Theory defend their idea as the "one true way." This is so foreign to the way physics was done in the first 70 years of the twentieth century that it seems bizarre to me. Einstein, Bohr and others seemingly fought their battles back them with a dignity and good humor that makes a lot of the ST crowd look like back alley thugs.

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