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Nature 443, 507-508 (5 October 2006) | doi:10.1038/443507a; Published online 4 October 2006

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Unburdened by proof

George Ellis1

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String theorists are setting a worrying trend by downplaying the need for experimental evidence.

BOOK REVIEWEDThe Trouble With Physics: The Rise of String Theory, the Fall of a Science, and What Comes Next

by Lee Smolin

Houghton Mifflin: 2006. 416 pp. $26

String theory — the proposal that physics is based on two-dimensional entities ('strings') vibrating in ten-dimensional space-time — is viewed by many physicists as the most promising approach to unifying all the fundamental forces of nature. It could, they claim, provide the ultimate 'theory of everything'.

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