One step closer to unification

A couple of years ago I was given the most excellent book, The Trouble With Physics by Lee Smolin.

Briefly, it outlines many of the problems that String Theorists have faced: what was once the most elegant of potential Great Unification Theories lost itself and couldn't be reconciled with many of the various theories and proofs that had gone before. Depends on how many dimensions you can fit into an atom. Probably.

I don't claim to understand any of it, but it's a cracking good read if you like this sort of thing: Brief History of Time, etc. Anyway, there's a group at Leiden University who claim that they can actually marry String theory with Quantum theory , all to do with materials becoming super-conductive at high temperatures, rather than extremely low ones. And while we haven't exactly been given the answers to the universe, these findings do actually demonstrate that String Theory may have a place in physics after all.

Oh, and if you happen to go to Amazon to look for Lee Smolin's book, have a look at this one as well for a bit of light reading and mighty amusement. Be sure to check out the reviews. And make sure you wear your 3 wolf T-shirt while you're doing so. It will make you the greatest theoretical physicist ever.

Perhaps not.