For decades scientists have been searching for one cohesive all-encompassing theory, one that would unite Einstein’s Theory of General Relativity, which explains how gravity works over long scales with Quantum Physics, the science of the tiniest matter. Together, these two great theories explain everything humanity knows so far about the cosmos. But, like a cartoon cat and mouse, they’re at war with one another. The Universe s3e2: Parallel Universes, History 2008
D’oh! We may never decode the universe: the human brain has possibly reached its limits. Reece, Sunday Times article 13th June 2010
It was lovely talking to you, and I hope you find your equation. The Theory of Everything 2014 starring Eddie Redmayne & Felicity Jones & Charlie Cox & Emily Watson & Simon McBurney & David Thewlis & Maxine Peake & Harry Lloyd & Charlotte Hope et al, director James Marsh, bird to Hawking
‘I could only do nine.’ ibid. Hawking to teacher
‘I had a slight problem with the whole celestial dictator premise.’ ibid. Hawking to bird
‘He averaged an hour, an hour a day he averaged.’ ibid. friend at celebration dinner
‘Was it something I said, professor?’ ibid.
Einstein relentlessly sought a single theory so powerful it would describe all the workings of the universe. Brian Greene, The Elegant Universe I, PBS 2003
String theory says we may be living in a universe ... of eleven dimensions with parallel universes right next door. ibid.
This is the goal of string theory: to unify our understanding of everything. ibid.
With string theory we think we may have found a way to unite our theory of the large and our theory of the small. ibid.
Einstein’s 1935 attack on quantum theory produced a front-page headline in The New York Times and has never been satisfactorily refuted; indeed, as of the mid-1990s, the latest experimentational evidence has breathed new life into the critique.
His greater preoccupation was the ultimate task of uniting the phenomena of light and gravity into a single theory. Einstein never was able, as one biographer put it, to ‘accept that the universe was fragmented into relativity on one side and quantum mechanics on the other.’ Sylvia Nasar, A Beautiful Mind
Most scientific theories do end up dead and forgotten. The Entire History of the Universe e23: Have We Really Found the Theory of Everything?
Gradually, the lights went out for Steady State. ibid.
Regular conferences are being held packed with both young and old attendees, all chasing the holy grail of physics – a unified theory that explains it all. ibid.
What was more, said Witten, M Theory was 11 dimensional, not 10, and the fundamental objects of this 11 dimensional theory were no longer strings, but a mysterious object taken from supergravity, the sixth theory. The fundamental objects of M Theory were branes – more specifically M-branes. ibid.
M Theory: A world of strings born from wrapping higher dimensional branes around minuscule extra dimensions. ibid.
For there is absolutely zero direct experimental evidence for M or String theory. ibid.