The String Theory Wars and What Happened Next

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String theory was a beautiful idea, the best contender for a theory of everything that we have seen so far. Thousands of physicists spend decades trying to work it out. But it didn’t quite go according to plan. String theory became extremely controversial during what's been dubbed the “String Wars” about 20 years ago. Then it kind of disappeared. What happened? What were the string wars? And what are string theorists doing now? That’s what we’ll talk about today.

This video comes with a quiz: https://quizwithit.com/start_thequiz/1709895855140x478935412148797440

At 13:41 the guy on the bottom right is Peter Woit, not a second Lee Smolin, sorry about that.

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00:00 Intro
00:49 A dream come true
03:45 The trouble begins
09:39 The string wars
15:06 AdS/CFT
20:19 Up to today
22:54 Summary
23:20 Stay safe with NordVPN