#particle

String theory is an attempt at a deeper description of nature by thinking of an elementary particle not as a little point but as a little loop of vibrating string. ↗

— Edward Witten

#deeper #description #elementary #little #loop

The biggest machines, in those days, were already pushing the limits of what could be constructed on Arbre with reasonable amounts of money." "I hadn't known that," I said. "I always tend to assume there's an infinite amount of money out there." "There might as well be," Arsibalt said, "but most of it gets spent on pornography, sugar water, and bombs. There is only so much that can be scraped together for particle accelerators. ↗

— Neal Stephenson

#particle-accelerators #science #money

If I could remember the names of all these particles, I'd be a botanist. ↗

— Enrico Fermi

#i #if i could #names #particles #remember

Spreading out the particle into a string is a step in the direction of making everything we're familiar with fuzzy. You enter a completely new world where things aren't at all what you're used to. ↗

— Edward Witten

#direction #enter #everything #familiar #fuzzy

Technically you need the extra dimensions. At first people didn't like them too much, but they've got a big benefit, which is that the ability of string theory to describe all the elementary particles and their forces along with gravity depends on using the extra dimensions. ↗

— Edward Witten

#along #benefit #big #depends #describe

It is good a philosopher should remind himself, now and then, that he is a particle pontificating on infinity. ↗

— Ariel Durant

#himself #infinity #now #now and then #particle