Science

Big if true — a team of mathematicians has generalized the derivation of the Navier-Stokes equation from the Boltzmann equation, and of the Navier-Stokes equation from Newton’s equations. Essentially deriving the macroscopic behavior of atoms from the mesoscopic and then the microscopic scales. This would be a big step forward in axiomatizing physics (i.e., modeling the whole of physics from fewer first-principle rules).

This was one of Hilbert’s “sixth problem” on his list of 23 problems delivered to the International Congress in 1900.

Lay article: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/lofty-math-problem-called-hilberts-sixth-closer-to-being-solved/

Pre-print:

Big if true — a team of mathematicians has generalized the derivation of the Navier-Stokes equation from the Boltzmann equation, and of the Navier-Stokes equation from Newton’s equations. Essentially deriving the macroscopic behavior of atoms from the mesoscopic and then the microscopic scales. This would be a big step forward in axiomatizing physics (i.e., modeling the whole of physics from fewer first-principle rules).

This was one of Hilbert’s “sixth problem” on his list of 23 problems delivered to the International Congress in 1900.

Lay article: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/lofty-math-problem-called-hilberts-sixth-closer-to-being-solved/

Pre-print: https://arxiv.org/pdf/2503.01800

Aviator, diver, Etherean, nexialist, PhD in aviation ∩ climate science | Host of /diving /ethfinance /eth-staker /geopolitics /science /singapore /thomas

This is impressive. I mean, not that important to have only one math, people nowadays are totally fine with switching, it's easy with computers. But the fact that these two models that were developed separately can be eventually unified is crazy 🤯
It's like running doom on a pregnancy test to me.