#particle

Having those extra dimensions and therefore many ways the string can vibrate in many different directions turns out to be the key to being able to describe all the particles that we see. ↗

— Edward Witten

#being #describe #different #different directions #dimensions

String theory is an attempt at a deeper description of nature by thinking of an elementary particle not as a little point but as a little loop of vibrating string. ↗

— Edward Witten

#deeper #description #elementary #little #loop

In the world of the very small, where particle and wave aspects of reality are equally significant, things do not behave in any way that we can understand from our experience of the everyday world...all pictures are false, and there is no physical analogy we can make to understand what goes on inside atoms. Atoms behave like atoms, nothing else. ↗

— John Gribbin

#discovery #life #particles #quantum-mechanics #quantum-physics

If I could remember the names of all these particles, I'd be a botanist. ↗

— Enrico Fermi

#i #if i could #names #particles #remember

The first stage had been all over before the doctors even knew they were dealing with a new sickness; it was the direct reaction to the bombardment of the body, at the moment when the bomb went off, by neutrons, beta particles, and gamma rays. ↗

— John Hersey

#before #beta #body #bomb #dealing

Spreading out the particle into a string is a step in the direction of making everything we're familiar with fuzzy. You enter a completely new world where things aren't at all what you're used to. ↗

— Edward Witten

#direction #enter #everything #familiar #fuzzy

Technically you need the extra dimensions. At first people didn't like them too much, but they've got a big benefit, which is that the ability of string theory to describe all the elementary particles and their forces along with gravity depends on using the extra dimensions. ↗

— Edward Witten

#along #benefit #big #depends #describe

My present work concerns the problems connected with the theory of elementary particles, the theory of gravitation and cosmology and I shall be glad if I can manage to make some contribution to these important branches of science. ↗

— Andrei Sakharov

#concerns #connected #contribution #cosmology #elementary

It's indeed surprising that replacing the elementary particle with a string leads to such a big change in things. I'm tempted to say that it has to do with the fuzziness it introduces. ↗

— Edward Witten

#big change #change #elementary #fuzziness #i

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. ↗

— Edward Witten

#because #discovered #experimental #get #lot