# Science nerds: Your thoughts on Quantum Gravity Research Project?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/science-nerds-your-thoughts-on-quantum-gravity-research-project/931649>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [January 27, 2021, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/science-nerds-your-thoughts-on-quantum-gravity-research-project/931649 "2021-01-27T21:41:54Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 3

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**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\
**Post date:** [January 29, 2021, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/science-nerds-your-thoughts-on-quantum-gravity-research-project/931649/41 "2021-01-29T20:53:21Z")

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> [@MrDibble](#):
>
> There are a few, and Wegener is a good one, but I wanted to know what the _OP_ considered “mocked as a crackpot”

Just helping out. 😀  
I pretty much agree with you. This is a lot rarer than most people seem to think. Mocked as a crackpot should mean that this is the predominant view. When there are two sides to a hot scientific debate one side will mock the other. Read Walter Alvarez’s book on the dinosaur extinction debate, for example, but in that case there were two sides and not one lone scientist against the world.

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**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\
**Post date:** [January 29, 2021, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/science-nerds-your-thoughts-on-quantum-gravity-research-project/931649/42 "2021-01-29T22:47:23Z")

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> [@Hari\_Seldon](#):
>
> > [@Senegoid](#):
> >
> > I think the existence of paradoxes like Russell’s Paradox could be called a glitch in the Universe.
> 
> I don’t know where the glitch is, but Russell’s paradox is in the universe. Here is a simpler version. Take a piece of paper blank on both sides (no Moebius strips allowed). On one side write, “The sentence on the other side of this paper is true.” On the other side, write, “The sentence on the other side of this paper is false.” Discuss the truth status of these sentences.

That’s not Russell’s paradox, note. That is basically a self-referential liar’s paradox while Russell’s paradox concerns the set of all sets.

Neither of which have anything to do with the universe. Which makes me think, I do not see an irreconcilable problem with doing (real, not fake!) research in string theory, loop quantum gravity, or what have you even if at first glance one seems to be proving some mathematical theorems that have no obvious connection to currently feasible scientific experiments. Such mathematical frameworks may be useful in their own right as well as down the road in numerical and actual experiments.

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**Author:** ![DMC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dmc/32/18049_2.png) [@DMC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DMC)\
**Post date:** [January 29, 2021, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/science-nerds-your-thoughts-on-quantum-gravity-research-project/931649/43 "2021-01-29T23:32:04Z")

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So the consensus appears to be “Time Cube guy with better marketing and fundraising potential”. Does that about sum it up?

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