Science takes time. Every scientific discovery, throughout history, has entailed a time lag between proposing the theory accepting it as experimentally proven fact. This is no less probable with regards to today’s newest scientific hypotheses. String theory becomes relevant at such small distances that it could take longer to validate than most other ideas being tossed around by the scientific community. Shamit Kachru advocates patience in anticipating experimental proof of string theory, and Brian Greene expands on the distances it references. A tree is to the entire universe as a string is to an atom.

Recorded June 2010; Posted August 2010