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PHVSICS Of THE IMPOSSIBLE
big bang, and uses the language of smooth surfaces, stretched fabrics,
and warped surfaces. The theories are opposites in every way, using
different mathematics, different assumptions, and different physical
pictures. It's as if nature had two hands, neither of which communicated with the other. Furthermore, any attempt to join these two theories has led to meaningless answers. For half a century any physicist
who tried to mediate a shotgun wedding between the quantum theory
and general relativity found that the theory blew up in their faces, producing infinite answers that made no sense.
All of this changed with the advent of the superstring theory,
which posits that the electron and the other subatomic particles are
nothing but different vibrations of a string, acting like a tiny rubber
band. If one strikes the rubber band, it vibrates in different modes,
with each note corresponding to a different subatomic particle. In this
way, superstring theory explains the hundreds of subatomic particles
that have been discovered so far in our particle accelerators. Einstein's
theory, in fact, emerges as just one of the lowest vibrations of the
string.
String theory has been hailed as a "theory of everything," the fabled theory that eluded Einstein for the last thirty years of his life. Einstein wanted a single, comprehensive theory that would summarize all
physical law, that would allow him to "read the Mind of God." If string
theory is correct in unifying gravity with the quantum theory, then it
might represent the crowning achievement of science going back two
thousand years ago to when the Greeks asked what matter was
made of.
But the bizarre feature of superstring theory is that these strings
can only vibrate in a specific dimension of space-time; they can only
vibrate in ten dimensions. If one tries to create a string theory in other
dimensions, the theory breaks down mathematically.
Our universe, of course, is four-dimensional (with three dimensions of space and one of time). This means that the other six dimensions must have collapsed somehow, or curled up, like Raluza's fifth
dimension.
Recently physicists have given serious thought to proving or dis-
PHVSICS Of THE IMPOSSIBLE
big bang, and uses the language of smooth surfaces, stretched fabrics,
and warped surfaces. The theories are opposites in every way, using
different mathematics, different assumptions, and different physical
pictures. It's as if nature had two hands, neither of which communicated with the other. Furthermore, any attempt to join these two theories has led to meaningless answers. For half a century any physicist
who tried to mediate a shotgun wedding between the quantum theory
and general relativity found that the theory blew up in their faces, producing infinite answers that made no sense.
All of this changed with the advent of the superstring theory,
which posits that the electron and the other subatomic particles are
nothing but different vibrations of a string, acting like a tiny rubber
band. If one strikes the rubber band, it vibrates in different modes,
with each note corresponding to a different subatomic particle. In this
way, superstring theory explains the hundreds of subatomic particles
that have been discovered so far in our particle accelerators. Einstein's
theory, in fact, emerges as just one of the lowest vibrations of the
string.
String theory has been hailed as a "theory of everything," the fabled theory that eluded Einstein for the last thirty years of his life. Einstein wanted a single, comprehensive theory that would summarize all
physical law, that would allow him to "read the Mind of God." If string
theory is correct in unifying gravity with the quantum theory, then it
might represent the crowning achievement of science going back two
thousand years ago to when the Greeks asked what matter was
made of.
But the bizarre feature of superstring theory is that these strings
can only vibrate in a specific dimension of space-time; they can only
vibrate in ten dimensions. If one tries to create a string theory in other
dimensions, the theory breaks down mathematically.
Our universe, of course, is four-dimensional (with three dimensions of space and one of time). This means that the other six dimensions must have collapsed somehow, or curled up, like Raluza's fifth
dimension.
Recently physicists have given serious thought to proving or dis-