Whether you are coming to the course as alover of science or to learn more ABOUT science, CC 212 (course name: “Reality”!) is a place to explore the beauty of quantum physics among many other topics.
Eager physicists and philosophers alike enter one of the most challenging fields hoping to make a discovery that could change the world. The only problem? Some of the most promising theories in physics can’t be subjected to propertesting as in other science fields.
Physics is not an easy subject to study! Here are some of the major equations used. Don’t worry CC 212 will not be this overwhelming! (source)
David Gross is one of these ambitious physicists; he won the Nobel Prize in 2004. Over atQuanta Magazine, he writes about the complications that come upin theory and research, and the kinds of controversy which arises when his colleagues in physics come up with ideas that it seems impossible to prove true or false:
The dogged pursuit of a fundamental theory governing all forces of nature requires physicists to inspect the universe more and more closely to examine, for instance, the atoms within matter, the protons and neutrons within those atoms, and the quarks within those protons and neutrons. But this zooming in demands evermore energy, and the difficulty and cost of building new machines increases exponentially relative to the energy requirement.”
When will the world ever catch up to science and in the meantime what do we do? The field is increasing and more answers need to be discovered with questionable evidence. How long can we keep up and how much should we believe? Read the full piece by Gross at theQuantawebsite, or take up the topic in conversation with CC 212 students in the Core office.
