The Problem with Theoretical Physics
Roger A. Rydin
The Editor of the Australian magazine Cosmos asked, ?Is it time to call a spade a spade, and admit that theoretical physics is heading down the wrong track?? In this particular issue was a feature article discussing inflation and string theory, and others about Stephen Hawking, the Standard Model of particle physics, and dark matter and energy. All pointed to various failures of accepted theory to adequately predict experimental results, even after years of trying. This paper discusses what nuclear engineer Roger Rydin and some of his associates in the Natural Philosophy Alliance (NPA) have to say about critical cosmological data that is being ignored, about obvious errors in relativity theory, and about new particle and gravitational theories that might point the way to new directions in physics. All of these NPA authors point to theoretical failures in the Big Bang model, to unwarranted corrections made to experimental cosmological data to make it fit the Big Bang model, and to conceptual errors in particle physics brought about by including relativistic theories and corrections that do not adequately explain all the experimental data. Many of these new ideas represent simpler theoretical models that explain more experimental data, and hence meet the essence of Occam?s Razor as areas worth developing.
