Department of Mathematics

String theory for many years has attracted much interest as a consistent theory of the interactions of the Standard Model and General Relativity. But while some broad features look right, it has not been possible to make detailed contact with experiments, past or future. Now it appears that the very features which seemed to make this theory difficult allow it to accomodate and perhaps explain some puzzling features of the world around us. Perhaps more striking, for the first time, it is possible that the theory may make predictions for experiments to be performed in the next generation of particle accelerators.