The original version of this story appeared in Quanta Magazine. String theory captured the hearts and minds of many physicists decades ago because of a beautiful simplicity. Zoom in far enough on a ...

String theory aims to explain all fundamental forces and particles in the universe—essentially, how the world operates on the smallest scales. Though it has not yet been experimentally verified, work ...

Scientists have found what they say is a link between complex number theory and string theory. A mathematician and physicist working together found the connection, which they say is part of plotting ...

A new study just added an interesting twist to the complicated history of the physics theory.

The fundamental particles of the universe that physicists have identified—electrons, neutrinos, quarks, and so on—are the "letters" of all matter. Just like their linguistic counterparts, they appear ...

Steve Giddings is a University of California, Santa Barbara string theorist. A provocative branch of physics called string theory might explain everything in the universe, such as how matter came into ...