The Complete Idiot's Guide to String Theory

modern scientific theories reveal the world as a process of self-creation. From the base of the tree on up, each level adds something that didn’t exist at the lower levels.

They had serious trouble explaining atoms, for example. They predicted that each atom would be unique, creating an infinite number of chemical elements; that electrons would spiral in on atomic nuclei, with unhappy consequences; that the electrons themselves would explode under their own pent-up electrical forces; and that the light emitted by atom