Paradoxically, even if testing confirmed that particles are strings of energy, that still would not conclusively prove even that particles are strings, since there could be other explanations, perhaps an unexpected warpage of space although the particle was a 0D point of true solidity. Even when predictions succeed, there are many possible explanations—the problem of underdetermination—and philosophers of science as well as some scientists do not accept even flawless predictive success as verification of the successful theory's explanations if these are posed as offering scientific realism, true description of the natural world.
Talk of particle physicists testing theoretical physicists' predicted particles by colliding particles in accelerators suggests that quantum particles are tiny Newtonian particles that experimentalists "crack" open to reveal their structure. Instead, when two particles, each of a certain mass—measured in terms of "energy" as electronvolts—are collided, they can combine into a particle of that combined mass/energy, and the generated particle is "observed" for correspondence with the prediction.
It is not controversial among physicists that all particles are "energy". Loop theorists, sometimes in rivalry with string theory, claim that spacetime itself converts into the particles. Matter's being a special variant of energy was a consequence of Einstein's special theory of relativity, and thereupon Einstein formalized the mass-energy equivalence, E=mc. When sufficiently energetic photons collide, they can combine and generate matter—matter creation. All particles have antiparticles, and atoms of matter have antiatoms of antimatter, whose union annihilates the particles and matter while leaving energy.
An inspiring development is discovery of mirror symmetry, whereby Calabi-Yau spaces tend to come in pairs such that solutions previously difficult within the extreme vibrational mode of one string can be solved by through the mirror Calabi-Yau space's geometry in its opposite range.
String theory is usually solved through conformal field theory, a quantum field theory on 2D space. It is confirmed that molecules can collapse to 2D. And the electron, long presumed an elementary particle, apparently splits into three entities separately carrying the electron's three degrees of freedom when the molecules that contain the electrons are channeled through a 1D pathway.
Scientist
A scientist is a person who studies or has mastered the field in science. A scientist tries to understand how our world, or other things, work. Scientists make observations, ask questions and do extensive research work in finding the answers to many questions others may not know about. Scientists have researched many things.
Scientists may work in laboratories for governments, companies, schools and research institutions. Some scientists teach at universities and other places and train people to become scientists. Scientists often do experiments to find out more about reality, and sometimes may repeat experiments or use control groups. Scientists who are doing applied science try to use scientific knowledge to improve the world.
Scientists can work in different areas of science.
Here are some examples:
Soapbox
A soapbox is a temporary platform used to give a speech. During the 19th century, soap was transported in wooden boxes. When a person had new or unusual ideas, and wanted to talk to a crowd about them, sometimes he or she would stand on an empty soapbox so that everyone could see and hear the talk well.
People sometimes use the word "soapbox" to mean a place to say new or unusual things.
Supernatural
The word supernatural (from ) is used for things that some people believe are real, but that are not part of nature or inexplicable by the scientific laws of nature. Because we cannot prove whether these things are real, people often disagree about these things.
Some say that we should talk about things without talking about the supernatural, because we cannot prove that supernatural things are real. Other people say that although we cannot prove supernatural things in a scientific way, they are real. Some examples of supernatural things or examples are:
Spirit
A spirit is considered to be the part of a being that is not the body. Other words with the same meanings are soul and ghost. When a body is alive, it has a spirit in it. Death is when the spirit separates from the body.
Christians believe that spirits exist in Heaven or Hell. (See 1 Timothy 3:16, 4:1)
Spiritualists believe that spirits can talk with people, or change things in the world. Many religions forbid communicating with such spirits in any way, (see Leviticus 19:31) but a few include this as part of their practice.
Another use of "spirit" means the main purpose or meaning of a sentence or document. For example, the "spirit of a law" is the true meaning of the law which the creator wanted. This phrase is often used when the words and sentences of a law could mean more than one thing, but a judge must decide what meaning is correct.
Seed
A seed is the part of a seed plant which can grow into a new plant. It is a reproductive structure which disperses, and can survive for some time. A typical seed includes three basic parts: (1) an embryo, (2) a supply of nutrients for the embryo, and (3) a seed coat.
There are many different kinds of seeds. Some plants make a lot of seeds, some make only a few. Seeds are often hard and very small, but some are larger. The coconut is as big as a child's head, but it contains more than just a seed. At the start, seeds are "dormant" (resting inside their coat) for a while. When the seed is ready to develop, it needs water, air and warmth "but not sunlight" to become a seedling.
Seeds carry the food that helps the new plant begin to grow. This food store is in the endosperm, and/or in the cotyledons. Many kinds of seeds are good food for animals and people. The many kinds of grain that people grow, such as rice, wheat, and maize, are all seeds. Seeds are often inside fruits.
A seed, though not active, is a tiny living thing. It contains the embryo of the future plant, which is not changing or developing: it is "dormant". The common idea is that the seed "sleeps" until it gets what it needs to wake up. That is not correct. Different seeds have different habits, no doubt adapted to their habitat. There are different kinds of resting stages in seeds:
When a seed germinates ("wakes up"), it begins to grow into a little plant called a "seedling". It uses the soft fleshy material inside the seed for nutrients (food) until it is ready to make food on its own using sunlight, water and air.
Most seeds germinate underground where there is no sunlight. The plant does not need the nutrients in soil for a few days or weeks, because the seed has all the things it needs to grow. Later, though, it will begin to need sunlight. If there is sunlight, the plant will use it to grow healthy. If there is no light, the plant will still grow for a while, but its plastids will not mature: the chlorophyll does not turn green. If the plant does not get enough light, it will eventually die. It needs light to make food for itself when the reserve in the seed runs out.
Seeds have been an important development in the reproduction and spread of conifers and flowering plants. Plants such as mosses, liverworts and ferns do not have seeds, and use unprotected spores and other methods to propagate themselves. Before the upper Devonian period, land plants, like modern ferns, reproduced by sending spores into the air. The spores would land and become new plants only in favourable conditions. Spores have little food stored, and may be just single cells rather than embryos.