Loop quantum gravity actually does have at least one testable conclusion: non-constancy the speed of light at high energies. There’s even some support for this as of a couple of weeks ago, with measurements from the Fermi telescope.
A quick Internet search reveals that there is research being conducted to test this testable conclusion. (Full disclosure: I never understood special relativity very well, much less general relativity; I do not feel qualified to comment on the results described in the link, attractive though they are.)
Interesting. However, I think it’s reasonably plausible that this is only a “test” in the same sense that the Brans-Dicke theory is “testable”: namely, if the test doesn’t work out (as indeed it didn’t), you can just cross out “X >= 10^13” and write in “X >= 10^15″ (or whatever). I don’t know LQG well enough to know if this is the case, though.
If nothing else, such alterations are likely to make the theory weak as a meme—much like Arthur Eddington’s theories about the fine-structure constant. (By these arguments, it must be exactly 1/136! What, it’s closer to 1/137? Well, by these arguments it must be exactly 1/137!)
Loop quantum gravity actually does have at least one testable conclusion: non-constancy the speed of light at high energies. There’s even some support for this as of a couple of weeks ago, with measurements from the Fermi telescope.
A quick Internet search reveals that there is research being conducted to test this testable conclusion. (Full disclosure: I never understood special relativity very well, much less general relativity; I do not feel qualified to comment on the results described in the link, attractive though they are.)
Interesting. However, I think it’s reasonably plausible that this is only a “test” in the same sense that the Brans-Dicke theory is “testable”: namely, if the test doesn’t work out (as indeed it didn’t), you can just cross out “X >= 10^13” and write in “X >= 10^15″ (or whatever). I don’t know LQG well enough to know if this is the case, though.
If nothing else, such alterations are likely to make the theory weak as a meme—much like Arthur Eddington’s theories about the fine-structure constant. (By these arguments, it must be exactly 1/136! What, it’s closer to 1/137? Well, by these arguments it must be exactly 1/137!)