The book is better than the TV program. I found after chapter 14 (if memory serves), the one with black holes as its main topic, it gets a bit heavy going but that might be due to the fact I was still in school and didn't know about things like manifolds, differential geometry or the details of any university level work. YMMV. Yes, its certain that some possible string theory constructions are anomaly free, though it depends a little on which particular string model you're working with. It boils down to the 10 dimensional version of the chiral anomaly and just as in that anomaly you're thus restricted in what gauge groups you can consider. The specific details are covered in depth in 'Superstring theory' by Green, Schwarz and Witten, 'D Branes' by Johnson and 'String Theory and M theory' by Schwarz, Becker and Becker but the result amounts to saying you need a gauge group of dimension 496 and a couple of other conditions. Only 4 possibilities end up satisfying them all, \(E_{8} \times E_{8}\), SO(32), \(U(1)^{496}\) and \(U(1)^{298} \times E_{8}\). The second two lead to trivial results and are plagued with other issues (they are thought to belong to 'the swampland', inconsistent stringy models). The other two arise via symmetric weight lattices and are known as the heterotic string theories. The original paper isn't too easy to get or understand, the books I mentioned cover the result in detail and (as you can guess from the author names) they are straight from the horses mouth. That isn't how science is done. Too many people think that if science isn't sure of something then their speculation is as valid as anyone elses. That's not true. A claim with sound logic, rigour and experimental evidence is superior to one with none. String theory isn't just "Lets make up what we like the sound of", it follows specific methodologies. For instance, in the parent model of string theory, M theory, you have absolutely no choice in the dimensionality of space-time. 11 wasn't picked because its a nice number or something is easier in 11 dimensional physics, it was an unavoidable implication of the postulates.
Some more lectures about String Theory Yes, I'd like to add a link (infocobuild.com/education/audio-video-courses/physics/string-theory-cern.html) containing lectures on string theory from CERN.
Pete, those were some funny cartoons. I tried to learn alot of stuff by using Wikipedia, but half way into an article I'd run into a term I didn't understand and would click on it. Then half way into that article I'd run into another one, and half an hour later I'd have about 6 tabs open on my browser all so I could read through one article. I know exactly how that feels. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
Ooh, yeah. Tab explosion. Each week, I have to research and present to our group some small part of our medical course, and I have an unfortunate tendency to go too deep. I once found that I had forty-six tabs open. Not good! Then I'll procrastinate by reading web comics instead... xkcd: DFS Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! xkcd: Tab explosion (Warning - If you like browsing, do not visit tvtropes unless you have a few hours to spare) Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! xkcd: The problem with Wikipedia Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
This is very fun place. It is turning difficult science fiction into fun science cartoon which is much more easy to understand.
