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It's one of the most brilliant, controversial and unproven ideas in all of physics: string theory. At the heart of string theory is the thread of an idea that's run through physics for centuries, that at some fundamental level, all the different forces, particles, interactions and manifestations of reality are tied together as part of the same framework. Instead of four independent fundamental forces -- strong, electromagnetic, weak and gravitational -- there's one unified theory that encompasses all of them. In many regards, string theory is the best contender for a quantum theory of gravitation, which just happens to unify at the highest-energy scales. Although there's no experimental evidence for it, there are compelling theoretical reasons to think it might be true. A year ago, the top living string theorist, Ed Witten, wrote a piece on what every physicist should know about string theory. Here's what that means, translated for non-physicists.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 06 2016, @10:21AM
I disagree with your title, because there is something every layperson should know about string theory. Namely:
But that's all the layperson needs to know.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 06 2016, @11:44AM
But then you would have to teach the layperson what non-emperical math is or mean. It's better if they just don't know nothing about this whole string theory thingy ... It's not like it going to change their life or anything.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 07 2016, @03:43AM
Non-empirical math? That must be the math for me. I used to like math, but then the teachers went high up on their pedestals like they were guarding the ancient tablets from the empire. Then I learned to hate it! Sounds like I'd love non-empirical math though!