String theory attempts to unify all forces and particles in the universe using vibrating strings. It aims to explain the Standard Model of particle physics, which is incomplete. String theory ...

Until recently, string theory — long heralded as a 'theory of everything' — hadn't been particularly good at explaining anything. But at a workshop this month at the Kavli Institute for ...

5) Explain dark matter and dark energy Over the past few decades, string theory has emerged as the great hope for facing these five challenges.

Complexity isn’t necessarily the kiss of death in physics, but in this case the new, improved theory posits a nearly infinite number of different possible universes, with no way of showing that ...

String theorists are shifting focus to solve some rather sticky problems in physics. Over the past few years, string theory has been less about trying to find a unifying description of all forces ...

The theory failed to unite gravity and quantum mechanics. But it still has become one of the most useful tools in science.

If string theory is correct, more convoluted mathematical trickery is required to hide these extra dimensions from us. String theorists are built of stern stuff and working with complex vibrations ...

Since the mid-1980s, many top physicists have pinned their hopes for repairing this fracture on string theory, which describes particles as extremely tiny loops of energy pulsating in a complex ...