What are Superstrings?
Superstrings, or superstring theory is an exciting field of physics sometimes called The Theory of Everything. It is thought by many to be the elusive unifying explanation Einstein sought that could account for all known forces in the universe. Until superstrings came along, scientists had two opposing theories for how the laws of nature behaved: Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity and Quantum Mechanics. General Relativity explains the world as we know it on a rather massive scale. It describes spacetime as a fabric warped by mass accounting for orbital systems, galaxies and the force of gravity. But these laws break down at the quantum level where a subatomic particle cannot be measured in terms of its exact position in space at a given time. It is also as likely to move backward in time as it is to move forward, and can even appear to be in two places simultaneously. The world of the infinitesimally small is so bizarre, scientists coined the term “quantum weirdness” to describe i
For the last 20 years of his life, Albert Einstein was something of an oddity in the physics community, like a beloved eccentric uncle whose favorite subject of conversation draws embarrassed looks around the table. While quantum theory, the theory of the infinitesimally small, was being tested with accuracy never attained before, he refused to accept that it was the ultimate theory. For the last years of his life, he worked on a way to reconcile his own theory of gravitation and the quantum description of the world. He didn’t succeed and died without seeing his dearest dream realized. More than 40 years later, Einstein is almost vindicated: The long lasting problem of incompatibility between general relativity and quantum mechanics seems to be on its way to a resolution. The solution may be difficult to grasp. If the handful of physicists involved in what are called “superstring theories” (or string, for short) are correct, we live in a world weirder than you can probably imagine. It’
Superstrings, or superstring theory, is an exciting field of physics sometimes called The Theory of Everything. It is thought by many to be the elusive unifying explanation Einstein sought that could account for all known forces in the universe. Until superstrings came along, scientists had two opposing theories for how the laws of nature behaved: Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity and Quantum Mechanics. General Relativity explains the world as we know it on a rather massive scale. It describes spacetime as a fabric warped by mass accounting for orbital systems, galaxies and the force of gravity. But these laws break down at the quantum level where a subatomic particle cannot be measured in terms of its exact position in space at a given time. It is also as likely to move backward in time as it is to move forward, and can even appear to be in two places simultaneously. The world of the infinitesimally small is so bizarre, scientists coined the term “quantum weirdness” to describe
