The most celebrated theory in modern physics faces increasing attacks from skeptics who fear it has lured a generation of researchers down an intellectual dead end. In its original, simplified form, circa the mid-1980s, string theory held that reality consists of infinitesimally small, wiggling objects called strings, which vibrate in ways that yield the different subatomic particles that comprise the cosmos. An analogy is the vibrations on a violin string, which yield different musical notes. Advocates claimed that string theory would smooth out the conflicts between Einsteinian relativity and quantum mechanics. The result, they said, would be a grand unifying "theory of everything," which could explain everything from the nature of matter to the Big Bang to the fate of the cosmos. Over the years, string theory has simultaneously become more frustrating and fabulous.

On the one hand, the original theory has become mind-bogglingly complex, one that posits an 11-dimensional universe (far more than the four- dimensional universe of Einstein). The modified theory is so mathematically dense that many Ph.D.-bearing physicists haven't a clue what their string- theorist colleagues are talking about. On the other hand, new versions of the theory suggest our universe is just one of zillions of alternate, invisible -- perhaps even inhabited -- universes where the laws of physics are radically different. String buffs claim this bizarre hypothesis might help to explain various cosmic mysteries.

View: Full Article | Source: San Francisco Chronicle

I have watched several programs on this subject and the more i think about it i just tie my mind up in knots. In my eyes there is so much we don't know and need to learn and through time things will become clearer.

Now I'm going to sit going over this in my head all day and come out none the wiser.

I was reading on NASA's New Millennium Programs web sight that some time in 2007 or 2008 a probe will be sent out that will measure the Gravitational Fluxuations of near and far distances. The sensing device is a by product of the String theory's Math. Apparently gravitational waves are not distorted as electromagnetic waves are. So recording the fluxuations in the time/space continuum will give a clearer view of what is happening inside of Black holes, something we don't know now. And I see Steven Hawkins will be addressing this at a conference later this year.
I like most do not understand the Math, But the understanding of Gravity has held back brake throughs in Space propulsion systems wich we need to explore beyond our Solar system.

I suggest buying the thickest book on strings and diving into it.