You have that one basic string, but it can vibrate in many ways. But we're trying to get a lot of particles because experimental physicists have discovered a lot of particles.
Interpretation
This quote emphasizes the complexity and variety within fundamental principles, particularly in the realm of physics.
Edward Witten highlights the idea that while there may be a basic foundational theory or string in physics, there are countless manifestations and variations of it, much like how a single string can vibrate in numerous ways. This reflects the rich diversity of particles that have been discovered and the ongoing exploration in theoretical physics that leads to new understandings.
In practice
In a science lecture discussing particle physics, you might quote this to describe the complexity of the subject.
Quantum mechanics brought an unexpected fuzziness into physics because of quantum uncertainty, the Heisenberg uncertainty principle. String theory does so again because a point particle is replaced by a string, which is more spread out.
But the beauty of Einstein's equations, for example, is just as real to anyone who's experienced it as the beauty of music. We've learned in the 20th century that the equations that work have inner harmony.
I wouldn't have thought that a wrong theory should lead us to understand better the ordinary quantum field theories or to have new insights about the quantum states of black holes.
Regardless of any deviations, it was clear I was supposed to end up in math and physics.
Even before string theory, especially as physics developed in the 20th century, it turned out that the equations that really work in describing nature with the most generality and the greatest simplicity are very elegant and subtle.
It's an exaggeration to say that I came up with M-theory.
The research worker, in his efforts to express the fundamental laws of Nature in mathematical form, should strive mainly for mathematical beauty. He should take simplicity into consideration in a subordinate way to beauty ... It often happens that the requirements of simplicity and beauty are the same, but where they clash, the latter must take precedence.
At one point consciousness-altering devices like the microscope and telescope were criminalized for exactly the same reasons that psychedelic plants were banned in later years. They allow us to peer into bits and zones of Chaos.
The typical imperative from biology is not "Thou shalt... ," but "If ... then ... else.
On seeing the marsupials in Australia for the first time and comparing them to placental mammals: βAn unbeliever . . . might exclaim 'Surely two distinct Creators must have been at work'β
I am persuaded that this method [for calculating the volume of a sphere] will be of no little service to mathematics. For I foresee that once it is understood and established, it will be used to discover other theorems which have not yet occurred to me, by other mathematicians, now living or yet unborn.
It took them only an instant to cut of that head, but it is unlikely that a hundred years will suffice to reproduce a singular one.
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