• The String Theory

    Quantum Physics—based on the Quantum Theory originated by Max Planck—confuses some people. Many theories involve Quantum Physics. One of these theories—the String Theory—baffles even the physicists studying it. However difficult it seems to understand, one sentence can describe the basic meaning. As said by James Gardner in his article “God’s Mind and Alice’s Restaurant,” “The essential claim of the string theory is that what we perceive as electrons, photons, and other subatomic particles are actually tiny one-dimensional snippets of energy vibrating furiously in eleven dimensions” (Gardner 2). Not only can one sentence explain it, String Theory’s development, history, and latest derivation—the M-theory—break down into basic concepts that anyone can understand.
    String Theory developed differently than other theories in the physics area. Normally, a theory would start with the fundamentals of quantum physics, develop into equations, and then physicists would solve those equations for the quantum fluctuations. String Theory developed backwards. In Parallel Worlds, Dr. Michio Kaku states, “...physicists are still puzzling over what physical principles may guide the theory” (Kaku 18 cool . Usually physicists would find the physical priciples first and work to develop the principles into a theory.
    Because the String Theory developed backwards, many physicists believe that it cannot stay together unless more evidence is found. “And in the final analysis, because it is impossible to make small adjustments witho ut destroying the theory, it will either be a ‘theory of everything’ or a ‘theory of nothing’” (Kaku 18 cool . Dr. Kaku makes it very clear to readers that one tiny change will disprove all of the work that physicists have put into trying to find evidence. In the article, “A theory of everything takes place” Gary Taubes writes, “For more than a decade, these theorists have been striggleing to make sense of a mathematical framework that may constitute a unified theory of particles and forces, of gravity and quantum physics – a.k.a., a theory of everything” (Taubes 1). This theory has very little stability, but if theorists can prove the theory, it will unite the different parts of the universe. The theory itself started as almost nothing.
    Mahiko Suzuki and Gabriele Veneziano discovered the theory by accident. They flipped through a math book and came across the Euler Beta function. This function “...seemed to strangely describe the subatomic world” (Kaku 18 cool . Dr. Kaku says, “String theory was a seat-of-your-pants method based on simply guessing the answer. Such breathtaking shortcuts were not supposed to be possible” (Kaku 188-189). Physicists have a hard time coming up with evidence to support the theory because a way to test it has not yet come into existence. “String theory works pretty well on paper, but physicists have struggled to identify experiments of observations to test it” (Wright 2), says Karen Wright in her article “Black Holes are Here.” Because of this fact, the purposal of the theory created quite a stir in the physics community.
    String theory shook the foundation of quantum physics. It questioned everything that physicists had discovered over the past hundreds of years. Edward Witten, quoted by Dr. Kaku, says, “‘By rights, twentieth-century physicists shouldn’t have had the privilege of studying this theory. By rights, string theory shouldn’t have been invented’” (Kaku 18 cool . Physicists believed in Relativity (developed by Albert Einstein) from the time it were developed and when people started talking about String theory, it received a lot of critisism. Many physicists opposed (and still oppose) the theory because of its instability. As Dr. Kaku says, “One theory that clearly is ‘crazy enough’ to be the unified field theory is string theory, or M-theory” (Kaku 187). Physicists call it crazy because it came out of from nowhere.
    M-theory (“M” stands for membrane) evolved from the string theory and describes the musical analogies to string theory counterparts. These analogies help give an image to what the human brain cannot grasp –it is impossible for the human brain to think in eleven dimensions).
    These eleven dimensions were unstable, however. “Finally, Yoichiro Nambu of the University of Chicago and Tetsuo Goto of Nihon University identified the key feature that made the model work—a vibrating string” (Kaku 190). The vibrating string of the theory (the superstring) compares to a violin string, just as subatomic particles compare to notes, the laws of harmony compare to physics, and the universe compares to a symphony of strings. Physicists do not yet know who the composer is.
    Physicists believe that this composer also created other worlds. These worlds, called “Parallel Worlds,” may differ from the universe Earth exists in. Physicists say that the universe the Milkyway galaxy subsists in has “Supersymmetry.” Theorists believe that in other worlds, the supersymmetry breaks as the world stems from this universe. (Taubes 2) Physicists still do not understand how the universes break off because no way exists to test any part of the theory.
    String theory’s parts can be very confusing to those who do not hold an interest in Physics. Luckily for those individuals, its history, development, and derivations break down easily and can be understood in simple terms. One cannot simply imagine eleven-dimensional space. The M-theory helps with this fact. “In order to make it work, thoerists have to assume that space isn’t merely three-dimensional...” (Lemonick 2).According to some physicists it should not have developed into the theory it is today, but it has and, as stated by James Gardner, “For the last several decades the quest to uncover a final theory has been dominated by string theorists...” (Gardner 2). These theorists believe that the string theory is the unified field theory of the universe. It could be the “final theory.”

    Works Cited
    Gardner, James N. “God’s Mind and Alice’s Restaurant.” Skeptic. (Summer 2007): 74. Science Resource Center. Thomas Gale. WHS Lib., Sioux Falls, SD. 23 Apr. 2008.
    <http://galenet.galegroup.com/>
    Kaku, Michio. Parallel Worlds. New York: Anchor Books, 2005.
    Lemonick, Michael D. “Before the Big Bang.” Discover. (Feb 2004): 34. Science Resource Center. Thomas Gale. WHS Lib., Sioux Falls, SD. 23 Apr. 2008.
    <http://galenet.galegroup.com/>
    Taubes, Gary. “A Theory of Everything Takes Place.” Science. (15 Sept. 1995): 1511. Science Resource Center. Thomas Gale. WHS Lib., Sioux Falls, SD. 23 Apr. 2008.
    <http://galenet.galegroup.com/>
    Wright, Karen. “Black Holes Made Here.” Discover. (June 2004): 62. Science Resource Center. Thomas Gale. WHS Lib., Sioux Falls, SD. 23 Apr. 2008.
    <http://galenet.galegroup.com/>