String Theory In a Nutshell

String theory postulates that the quarks and electrons that make up an atom are made up of 1- dimensional vibrating strings. The frequency of the vibrations determines what type of particle each string makes. The theory has been around for more than 30 years and was developed to reconcile some of the inconsistencies in our current knowledge of particle physics.

In order to understand the basics of string theory one needs to understand the other theories that string theory was developed to work with. General Relativity, The Standard Model, and Quantum Mechanics have all played major roles in the development of string theory.

The first developed string theory is the Bosonic String theory. A major problem with this theory is that it only includes force carrying particles called bosons while many particles are fermions which are the particles that make up matter. With the introduction of supersymmetry 5 new string theories emerged that include bosons and fermions. These new string theories are called superstring theories. At first physicists believed that only 1 of the 5 theories was the correct theory. After years of research physicist now believe that all 5 theories are correct and each one is just a different aspect of the same theory. M-theory was developed to combine the 5 superstring theories into a model where they complement each other.

Proponents of string theory suggest that it is a good candidate for a theory of everything where all known physical phenomena are linked and the outcome of any experiment can be predicted. Opponents of string theory argue that many of the theories aspects cannot be proven with experimentation at our current level of technology.