I'm almost finished with Brian Green's "The Elegant Universe" and have been fascinated with his ability to explain what may be "The Theory of Everything" in such understandable and entertaining ways. I've never been able to grasp the theory of quantum mechanics until now (that's not to say that his book has made me an expert by any means).

Nova produced a special on String Theory based upon his book. More info about the special can be found here.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/elegant/

 

Yeah, my father got his PhD in theoretical particle physics and did his disertation on string theory. I have gotten to learn a lot about Quantum Mechanics and specifically string theory over the years through him. I agree, string theory is very very interesting...however, it will be interesting to see how much of it pans out. Seems that they've been "stuck" for a while now.

 

I saw that Nova special. I was rather disapointed because it was a rather fluffy presentation. By that I mean it didn't go into too much detail beyond "Hey, here's this cool new idea that everything is made of 'strings' and they're 15 dimensions rolled up into very small spaces," or something like that. No real indication how or why they think the universe is like that. Never did explain to my satisfaction how that relates to Relativity either. Perhaps I simply didn't understand it at first glace, or I suppose that's all they can do without going into the math. Particle and quantum mechanics are rather esoteric these days, unlike the easier to understand concept of the uncertaincy principle.

 

Elistan,

You would enjoy Green's book. He gives explainations that even I can grasp.

RiceBurnerTX,

You're right. Advances in this theory as in many other areas of research come in fits and spurts. It takes the right theorists in mathematics, physics and computer programming coming together and breaking through barriers to understanding.

Its encouraging that every advance has verified predictions made based upon the six string theories and seem to validate the M Theory as well.

 

Another book I'd recommend to anyone interested is Hyperspace by Michio Kaku. Whilst it's a few years old now, it's a great read on string theory. There's no maths in it to scare anyone, and there's lots of stories and bits of history, some of which are pretty amazing. There are some incredible thinkers out there.

 

Reading about string theory is like reading science fiction. I keep having to remind myself that this theory is about reality.

I've ordered Kaku's book. Can't wait to get it.

 

I've read Hyperspace too, and would recommend it, an easy read. Well, as easy a read as it can be considering the subject is cutting edge theoretical physics!