String Instruments; October 1998; Scientific American Magazine; by Musser; 2 Page(s)

The theory of strings, which attributes the infinite variety of the cosmos to the harmonies of subatomic membranes, has emerged over the past two decades as the leading contender for the "theory of everything." It would explain the four forces of nature--gravity, electromagnetism, and the weak and strong nuclear forces--as a single force with different manifestations. But how could such a theory ever be proved? The last time the four forces acted as one was at the big bang; to re-create those conditions, physicists would need a particle accelerator larger than the solar system, which Congress might be reluctant to fund. Despairing of the task, some scientists call theories of everything an exercise in theology. "For the first time since the Dark Ages," physicists Paul Ginsparg and Sheldon L. Glashow wrote 12 years ago, "we can see how our noble search may end, with faith replacing science once again."

That proclamation now seems premature. Researchers have devised the first astronomical probe of theories of everything and have also discovered that the four forces may unite under conditions short of the big bang. "Uni- fication, the theory of everything, might actually be accessible experimentally," says Nima Arkani-Hamed of the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center.