in the 1990's String Theory was our best explanation of
the physical universe

and there was hope that it might be shown to be the
Theory of Everything -

that is, the theory that could explain all of the physical
phenomena of the universe

however, a troubling anomaly became apparent when five
related but different versions of string theory emerged

five string theories? that was four too many!
and there was concern

a breakthrough occurred in 1995

it was then that physicist Ed Witten, blew everyone out
of the water with what has come to be known as M Theory

Witten is a universally respected physicist who has been
described as "the potential successor to Einstein"

so he was taken seriously when he proposed that M theory
assumes the existence of an 11th dimension

in other words, Witten proposed that our universe is
comprised of: the three spatial dimensions of length, width,
and height; time; and 7 others

when viewed from the perspective of Witten's 11th
dimension, the five seemingly different and competing
string theories can be seen to be only one

as physicist Michael Greene put it, "string theory was
unified at last!"

check out the video below for more details on Witten's
contribution



the above video is a brief excerpt from NOVA's
The Elegant Universe, it can be seen in full here

Related Posts:
- String Theory
- From String Theory to M-Theory
- M Theory & The Weakness of Gravity
- The Big Bang as per String Theory
- The Lure of Unification Theory
- 11th Dimension & Parallel Universes
- Inter-Universe Communication via the "GravityPhone"