Word: schwarzes
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That is, perhaps, until now. These days physicists are astir with a concept that just may be their ultimate TOE. The theory, developed by Physicists John Schwarz of Caltech and Michael Green of Queen Mary College in London, is known by the unlikely name of superstrings. It explains the forces not as interacting pointlike particles--the conventional approach--but as infinitesimally small, winding, curling, one-dimensional strings. By manipulating the highly intricate mathematics of the string theory, physicists believe they can avoid many of the troubling discrepancies that have dogged all other TOEs. Some scientists are already comparing the idea...
Judging by the flurry of activity in the field, others apparently agree. Since the fall of 1984, scientific papers about superstrings have been streaming forth at an ever increasing rate that now averages 100 per month, and conferences centered around strings are becoming commonplace. Upon hearing of Schwarz and Green's latest breakthrough in string theory, says Steven Weinberg, a physicist at the University of Texas, "I dropped everything I was doing, including several books I was working on, and started learning everything I could about string theory." That task is far from trivial. "The mathematics," he concedes, "is very...
...rescue come superstrings. One primitive version of the theory was proposed in 1971 by Schwarz and France's Andre Neveu to explain the workings of the strong force. Schwarz later refined the theory with another Frenchman, Joël Scherk, recognizing that it was potentially the ultimate Theory of Everything. But the enhanced theory initially failed to cause a stir. "No one ever accused us being crackpots," says Schwarz, "but our work was ignored." In 1979 Schwarz began working with Michael Green, and by 1984 the two were able to demonstrate on paper that their string theory was free of anomalies...
...problems have not been entirely ironed out. For one thing, superstrings require ten dimensions in order to work, although scientists know of only four in the real world: three dimensions of space, and one of time. Admits Schwarz: "We don't live in ten dimensions." He and his colleagues offer an explanation for the discrepancy by assuming that after the Big Bang, four dimensions were liberated onto the large scale of the universe, while the remaining six remained rolled up into a little ball at every point in space-time. "What's pretty sure," says Schwarz, "is that today...
Apparently so. The $18 game has been on selected U.S. shelves for three months, and stores from F.A.O. Schwarz in New York City to I. Magnin in San Francisco are increasing their original orders. "There are so many trivia games out," says Magnin Buyer Julia Burke. "People are looking for a different kind of interaction." Promoter Eisenberg predicts sales of more than a million this year; spin-offs, paraphernalia and even a TV show are in the works. And Makow is keeping busy by developing a children's edition, because, he says, "they are concerned about right and wrong...