This Is Why Physicists Think String Theory Might Be Our ‘Theory Of Everything’
In 2015, Ed Witten, the greatest living string theorist, wrote a piece on why. Here’s the version for everyone.
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. Even though there’s no experimental evidence for it, there are compelling theoretical reasons to think it might be true. Back in 2015, the top living string theorist, Ed Witten, wrote a piece on what every physicist should know about string theory. Here’s what that means, even if you’re not a physicist.
