Membrane
Theory
In the middle of
the twentieth century, physicists discovered a big problem. Einstein and Newton's
widely accepted work on gravity and the operation of large scale forces was
seriously out of step with the new understanding of particle physics coming
from quantum mechanics. The 'laws of nature' that ruled the stars and planets
simply did not work at the sub-atomic level. Superstring theory, and the subsequent
m-theory, was developed as a new model of the sub-atomic universe to reconcile
what we observe on the very large and very small scales. At its heart is the
proposal that matter, space and time are composed of tiny vibrating strings
or membranes. Different elements and forces are a product of different vibrations
of the strings in multidimensional space. The Calabi-Yau shape shown
is a representation of the curled up multi dimensional space through which the
strings are thought to vibrate.
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