THE STRING'S THE THING

摘要

Quantum gravity - the attempt to incorporate gravity into the quantum framework that describes the other forces of nature - seems an unlikely subject to spill out of physics conferences and become a passionate debate in the popular press. But string theory, the most popular approach to quantum gravity, has long been a darling of the science media and an intrigue in the public eye. That's because the theory, in its original incarnation in the so-called first superstring revolution, claimed to be not only a way to quantise gravity but a complete Theory of Everything. From a framework in which both gravity and quantum particles are really strings vibrating in hidden dimensions, physicists dreamed that every aspect of particle physics would elegantly spill forth.