Do you know that we can explain everything in the known world with only 12 particles and 4 forces!?
Six kinds of quarks (up, down, charm, strange, top, bottom) and six kinds of leptons (Electron, Mu, Tau, Electron neutrino, Mu neutrino, Tau neutrino) interact with each other through four forces, namely: gravity, electromagnetism, strong and weak nuclear forces.
Physicists are trying to find a single, fundamental entity to these particles and unify the forces for many years with no solid result beyond this standard model of elementary particles. String theory with all the extra dimensions still remains inadequate.
For now we understand and can explain the world through the 12 fundamental particles and 4 kind of forces.
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String theory was an attempt to get a unified theory that can explain away every single phenomenon in physics - those covered by quantum mechanics as well as general relativity. It hasn't so far been successful at it. The contents of this blog seems to suggest that they have actually found an alternative unified theory that can actually explain away everything? Could you please give us a link for further reading? I guess Sriram anna, if he is keeping up with his sword play, can add some useful comments here?
In 2005 I attended a series of lectures on relativity theory in the Univ. of Michigan as 2005 marked the 100th anniversary of E=mC^2. One of the scientist explained why we needed a unified theory to understand black holes. The extremely small nature of black holes (they occupy no space) required that they be explained by quantum mechanics. But the infinitely great forces that it exerts (gravitational force it has is so high that even light - the lightest thing in the universe, the reason for which it is called light - cannot escape it and hence it appears black) requires that general relativity explain it. Thus there no single theory, quantum mech or relativity, can explain black holes - we need a unified theory.
The post is based on what is called the standard model of particle physics.
There is no single theory that unifies the fundamental particles and forces to explain coherently all physical phenomena. For now we are stuck with the explanation based on 12 different particles and 4 different forces. Earlier in history, phenomenas such as heat, light, electricity, magnetism were all understood to be the manifestations of ElectroMagnetic force at different frequencies. The science of Field Theory was born out of that unification. But we are not able to unify gravity and electromagnetism, for example.
I am in the middle of reading this amazing book http://www.amazon.com/Trouble-Physics-String-Theory-Science/dp/0618551050
Check it out for arguments against the String theory.
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