Some of the grand basics -- such as a thorough description of early Earth after the Big Bang -- remain elusive. But string theory, which several Texas A&M scientists are studying, holds the promise of unlocking that knowledge, officials said.
"There are things in physics that we are unable to describe," said Christ-opher Pope, director of the Mitchell Institute for Fundamental Physics and Astronomy at Texas A&M. "String theory is about the only plausible candidate for a theory that could unify gravity with the other forces of nature."
About 40 experts will gather at Texas A&M next week to come closer to that goal as the university hosts the 2010 Strings Conference from Monday to Friday, when students are out of class on spring break.
Prominent string theorists from as far as China, India, France and Germany are expected
Expected theorists include Steven Weinberg, a co-recipient of the 1979 Nobel Prize in physics and a professor at the University of Texas at Austin, and Edward Witten, winner of the 2002 National Medal of Science and a professor at Princeton's Institute for Advanced Study.
Next week will mark the third time the international conference has been held at Texas A&M, which has a physics department with seven faculty members studying various aspects of the topic. The previous times were in 1989 and 1990.
"There's a considerably larger community of people working in this subject," said Pope, who is one of the world's most active researchers in high-energy theory.
"We have a much better understanding today than we did in the late 1980s," he said.
String theory, he said, replaces the idea that particles are the fundamental level of physics. Instead, the basics are tiny strings that are closed into loops and vibrate like violin string to produce matter.
For information about attending the convention, visit http://mitchell.physics.tamu.edu/Conference/string2010/Registration.html.
Pope warns that the discussions will be highly technical and difficult to understand without prior knowledge.
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