string theory

String theory, which considers that the fundamental building blocks of nature are strings rather than point-like objects or particles as has been believed hitherto, has become a major theme of research in the discipline of theoretical high-energy physics. Hailed by its practitioners as the `Theory of Everything' because of its ability to provide a framework to unify all the fundamental forces of nature, the string theory has both fascinated and mystified physicists. string theory is a very promising, exciting and interesting proposal for developing our understanding of the laws of nature beyond where they currently stand. What happened is that we discovered that string theory contains within it particles and forces that look very, very much like the particles and forces that we see in the world around us. The door was opened to the possibility that string theory really is a theory of nature. The initial progress in 1984 and 1985 was so rapid and dramatic that many people had the feeling that we would push it all the way to the finish line within a few years or even months.There are two major problems that have arisen in theoretical physics in the last half of the 20th century. The first is the very basic problem that the laws of physics as we know them are not self-consistent. Quantum mechanics is not consistent with Einstein's theory of general relativity. So we don't have any choice but to go on. We have a theory where we can ignore various inconsistencies and make some predictions but ultimately if we were to try and make detailed enough predictions, those inconsistencies would prevent us from getting correct results.Then there's another problem. The laws of physics as we currently understand are kind of a laundry list of equations and masses for various particles and strengths of various forces and there doesn't seem to be any unifying theme or any order behind this list.