String Theory, Shimng Theory... Bring On The E8 - Part I

If you do not want to read this post, then at least watch this: String Theory

To all my fellow vibrating strings of energy and the ladies in the house tonight, say Yeah! No, it's time... time to understand the symmetries of the universe and how the LHC will ideally provide a road map to the workings of the cosmos.

So this is a story all about how, my life got flipped, turned upside down, and I'd like to take a minute so just sit right there... (Fresh Prince of Bel-Air circa 1992).  Life? Upside down? Mike, what are you talking about? Well, I will tell you that our lives are upside down... multiplied  by 11. Still lost? What if I told you that the three space dimensions you see and the one time dimension you experience, weren't the end of the story? What if I told you the greatest feat of human engineering and ingenuity will hopefully show us another world... literally.

Unless you've been purposefully ignoring what's happening in Geneva, Switzerland, then you should have heard talk about a science experiment that some fear may destroy the world. No worries, it will not... I mean it hopefully WILL create a black-hole, but that will not destroy us. You may be wandering, what is all the hype about the Large Hadron Collider for? What is the LHC? What's going on? Who am I?

Ok, hold on chief... I will break this down for you. Here are some issues with Physics and the mathematics (which is simply a language to communicate in) that govern our Universe: 1) Gravity (and I'm not talking about my high school rapper friend)... that's great, but think about this, if the entire massive Earth is constantly pulling me towards it, then why is the massive Earth's gravity (which you need a rocketship to escape from) not pulling me through the couch I'm sitting on and through the floor of my apartment and through the ground beneath me? Something within the atoms that make up my couch must be stronger than gravity. What could that be? 2) Enter Quantum Mechanics... yikes! What the hell is that! Let's just say it's what happens in the world of atoms and smaller things... and in this world anything you can think of will most likely happen. Anything? Yes, anything. Particles can be in two places at once, that is "IF" you could even pinpoint that particle in space (Heinsberg Uncertainty Principle).

So what's the problem? Well if there was a problem yo I'll solve it, check out the hook while my DJ revolves it (Vanilla Ice circa 1991). The problem is that the mathematics and experiments that prove General Relativity (that is Albert Einstein's theory about gravity) and the mathematics and experiments that prove Quantum Mechanics are not compatible. Oh, Mike... who cares?!?! Well, you should care. In our Universe, there should be an explanation as to why things behave the way they do. Or in other words... A Unified Theory of Everything. 

Enter String Theory... but we will save that for a rainy day. So for the next post, we will discuss String Theory, M-Theory, the LHC, Higgs Boson, and Black Holes. In the third and final post of this series, we will have a brief recap, then go into depth of E8, and then finish off the night with a night cap and the implications and outlooks of the future of technology.