String theory

String theory is either "a theory in physics [under which] all elementary particles are manifestations of the vibrations of one-dimensional strings." or a "concept that all particles can be represented as strings or string-loops of incredibly minute length, oscillating at various frequencies." Such strings, the theory states, exist within ten or eleven dimensions of which six or seven are inconceivably minute structures attached to every point in our four-dimensional spacetime.

String theory is assumed to explain everything from relativity and quantum mechanics to the very existence of basic particles. It is now a main focus of physics. Although it is celebrated in the modern scientific establishment one can clearly tell that it deals more with origins science than with operational science. One of the most prominent followers and now sceptics of string theory is Lee Smolin, who in his book, The Trouble with Physics as Martin Gardner states in a review, now says that string theory is... only a set of curious conjectures in search of a theory. True, it has great explanatory power, but a viable theory must have more than that. It must make predictions which can be falsified or confirmed.