What is string theory?  The physicists themselves will tell you that, at its core, string theory is a set of related mathematical formulae that describe the fundamental objects and fundamental forces of the universe--the so-called building blocks of matter.

Out of these building blocks, string theory constructs the entire universe.  So string theory is, in a tangible sense, a cosmology--an explanation for the totality of space and time--a theory of everyting.  Now, string theorists would also point out that their theory addresses specific problems that arise within the two established theories, quantum theory and general relativity.  As such, string theory is an attempt at a quantum theory of gravity.

Quantum theory describes the fundmental particles of matter and three out of four of the fundamental interactions so far known to exist: electromagnetism, the weak nuclear force, and the strong nuclear force.  General relativity treats the other known force: gravity, which becomes the dominant force on very large scales.  In this sense, quantum theory is a theory of the very small, and general relativity, of the very large.  So far, no one has been able to reconcile gravity with quantum theory.  Much of current theoretical physics concerns itself with solving this mother of all problems--that of incorporating general relativity into quantum theory.  Or its complimentary approach: incorporating quantum theory into general relativity.

String theorists would emphasize that physical theories are essentially mathematical models.  But since they deal with fundamental objects and fundamental forces, the very substance of our world, it is difficult not to let the imagination get caught up in the implications of all this theorizing.  Just what does string theory mean to our day-to-day lives, to the life of our imaginations?

I'm sure you have had some exposure to imaginative speculations on the implications of relativity and quantum theory.  Popular culture, especially science-fiction, is chock with tropes such as parallel universes, black holes, quantum tunneling, quantum foam, travel faster than the speed of light, and other such whimsical concretizations of these theories, which have now been around for almost a century.  But string theory is relatively new--it took its current form around the mid-80s, with the birth of superstring theory.

So the following questions still remain very much open ones:

So far, how has, and, in the years to come, how will string theory be adapated by popular culture?  How will this adaptation be different from quantum theory and relativity's adaptation?  How will string theory change our understanding of the universe in terms of the human imagination, not just the hard science?  What is possible in a stringy cosmos?  And how will string theory shape our dreams of this world, our understanding of life, and of our very selves?

These questions are exactly what we want our contributing writers to explore.

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