String Theory, that Theory of Everything that purports to explain all of physics as arising from evanescent strings vibrating in 10, 11 or possibly 26 dimensions, seems to be in a spot of trouble. An article in the New Yorker describes some of the travails of the theory and it’s theorists.
It seems that certain malcontents are deriding String Theory as a Theory of Nothing, saying that it has not produced any testable results, is just a collection of guesses and may well be an unintended hoax.
The author tosses the theory a mock reverse compliment, calling it “mathematically beautiful” and then paradoxically proceeds to savage it’s lack of simplicity.
Unstrung – New Yorker, 2006-09-25
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There was so much hope for the string theory, too. I hope its critics turn out to be wrong.
Now, I don’t know much about physics, but it seems like there’d be a big difference between 10 and 26 dimensions.