There was a time when universe meant all there is. Everything. Brian Greene, Beyond the Cosmos: Multiverse, National Geographic 2012
There’s more. A lot more. That our universe is not alone. There may be other universes, in fact there might be new ones being born all the time. We may actually live in an expanding sea of multiplying universes – a multiverse. ibid.
If there are an infinite number of universes in the multiverse, somewhere there’s a place that’s almost identical to ours, except for the slightest details. ibid.
We really may be part of a multiverse ... The generally accepted theory of the origin of our universe – the Big Bang. ibid.
Guth: Gravity can act in reverse. ibid.
Guth called this short burst of expansion – inflation ... The powerful repulsive gravity of inflation was the bang in the Big Bang. ibid.
Quantum Physics: The tiniest scale ... These sub-atomic bits might actually be made of something smaller – tiny vibrating strands. ibid.
Strings can take on different properties. ibid.
Extra dimensions of space ... The shape of those extra dimensions determines the fundamental features of our universe. ibid.
Extra dimensions can be curled up. ibid.
String theory was describing a multiverse. ibid.
Eternal Inflation + Dark Energy + String Theory = We may live in a multiverse. ibid.
Proponents of the string theory think that we’re actually surrounded by nine dimensions ... These extra dimensions explain why gravity is so weak. Stephen Hawking’s Universe, BBC 1997
String Theory unified every single thing in the universe from atoms to stars and planets to people. It says they are all made from one ingredient – strings. These strings are the building blocks of everything we see around us. The entire universe is a gigantic mesh of these vibrating strings. Stephen Hawking
Why Gravity is so weak now – the reason – the universe is made up of eleven dimensions. Stephen Hawking: Master of the Universe, Channel 4 2008
Our world is just a giant mesh of vibrating strings. String theory brings the theories of the very large and the very small together beautifully. ibid.
String theory is the only candidate for a theory of everything. ibid.
A single piece of string can divide into two strings. In string theories, what were previously thought of as particles are now pictured as waves travelling down the string, like waves on a vibrating kite string. The emission or absorption of one particle by another corresponds to the dividing or joining together of strings. Stephen Hawking, A Brief History of Time p176
Strings of gravity vibrate at a different frequency than strings of light. Roy H Williams
In essence, String Theory describes space and time, matter and energy, gravity and light, indeed all of God’s creation ... as music. Roy H Williams
The phenomenon we have just encountered would be a temporal rift in space – possibly the formation of a curl-loop from super-string material. Star Trek: The Next Generation s3e15: Yesterday’s Enterprise, Data
It appears to be a cosmic string fragment. Only one hundred and seven kilometres long. Two dimensional beings seem to be caught in the gravitational power of the string. Star Trek: The Next Generation s4e10: The Loss, Data
Some string theorists prefer to believe that string theory is too arcane to be understood by human beings, rather than consider the possibility that it might just be wrong. Lee Smolin, The Trouble with Physics
Every string theory that’s been written down says the speed of light is universal. But other ideas about quantum gravity predict the speed of light has actually increased. Lee Smolin
If string theory is a mistake, it’s not a trivial mistake. It’s a deep mistake and therefore kind of worthy. Lee Smolin
Just like an ordinary guitar string, a fundamental string can vibrate in different modes. And it is these different modes of vibration of the string that are understood in string theory as being the different elementary particles. Lee Smolin
String theory is a powerful, well-motivated idea and deserves much of the work that has been devoted to it. If it has so far failed, the principal reason is that its intrinsic flaws are closely tied to its strengths – and, of course, the story is unfinished, since string theory may well turn out to be part of the truth. The real question is not why we have expended so much energy on string theory but why we haven’t expended nearly enough on alternative approaches. Lee Smolin
We now think that matter is made up of little strings. Burt Ovrut, University of Pennsylvania
String theory you know is our best hope for a theory unifying all the forces of nature ... It’s the best game in town. Steven Weinberg, interview Professor Richard Dawkins
Years later I found the solution for two moving cosmic strings. Richard Gott
If two infinite Strings are passing each other at high speed, you could use them to make a time machine. Richard Gott
Superstring. Cygnus X, house single
I think all this superstring stuff is crazy and is in the wrong direction. Richard Feynman
Is string theory a futile exercise as Physics, as I believe it to be? Phil Anderson
We are experiencing an existential shock. Our world view has been shattered with the realisation that, yes, there could be parallel universes ... Satellite data indicates there could be parallel universes ... New theories called String Theories are giving us worlds of higher dimensions; quantum physics at the microscopic scale is also revealing to us there could be parallel universes ... The implications are staggering. Maicho Kaku
We can summarize electricity, magnetism and gravity into equations one inch long, and that’s the power of field theory. And so I said to myself: I will create a field theory of strings. And when I did it one day, it was incredible, realizing that on a sheet of paper I can write down an equation which summarized almost all physical knowledge. Michio Kaku
Each vibration of the string corresponds to a particle. Therefore string theory is a quantum theory. The jumble of particles we see is nothing but the jumble of notes vibrating on the string. Michio Kaku
All of a sudden we realised the universe is a symphony, and the laws of physics are harmonies of a superstring. Michio Kaku
For more than ten years, my theory was in limbo. Then, finally, in the late 1980s, physicists at Princeton said, ‘There’s nothing wrong with this theory. It’s the only one that works, and we have to open out minds to hyperspace.’ We weren’t destined to discover this theory for another 100 years because it’s so bizarre, so different from everything we’d been doing. We didn’t use the normal sequence of discoveries to get to it. Michio Kaku, 2000
If the Strings can be made to move past each other, they create a unique vortex shape in the fabric of Space/Time ... Cosmic strings are certainly massive enough to manipulate Space & Time, and allow me to travel into the future and the past. But to build a working practical time machine out of cosmic strings is going to be real tough. Michio Kaku, Science of the Impossible
To the extent that we even understand string theory, it may imply a massive number of possible different universes with different laws of physics in each universe, and there may be no way of distinguishing between them or saying why the laws of physics are the way they are. And if I can predict anything, then I haven’t explained anything. Lawrence M Krauss
The most important [reason] is that there are no other good ideas around. That’s what gets most people into it. When people started to get interested in string theory they didn’t know anything about it. In fact, the first reaction of most people is that the theory is extremely ugly and unpleasant, at least that was the case a few years ago when the understanding of string theory was much less developed. It was difficult for people to learn about it and to be turned on. So I think the real reason why people have got attracted by it is because there is no other game in town. All other approaches of constructing grand unified theories, which were more conservative to begin with, and only gradually became more and more radical, have failed, and this game hasn’t failed yet. David Gross