Could some observations from a faraway galaxy add up to a refutation of string theory? Researchers who study data from NASA’s Chandra Observatory think so. It’s difficult to prove something’s absence ...

String theory aims to explain all fundamental forces and particles in the universe—essentially, how the world operates on the smallest scales. Though it has not yet been experimentally verified, work ...

The original version of this story appeared in Quanta Magazine. String theory captured the hearts and minds of many physicists decades ago because of a beautiful simplicity. Zoom in far enough on a ...

Tiny little threads whizzing through spacetime and vibrating incessantly: this is roughly how you can imagine the universe, according to string theory. The various vibrations of the threads generate ...

Brian Greene is one of the foremost scientists and science communicators of our time. Greene, a theoretical physicist at Columbia University, has been working for decades to advance our understanding ...