JRT:

Yes, my father was a physicist all his life. I studied theoretical physics at university and then became a sw developer. This is not as surprising as it seems. Actually, even before we began the studies, we were told that we wouild probably not be able to work as physicists. Add to that that I was made my masters thesis about the big bang - something that is of little interest to industry, that I had computers as hobby and that at that time, there was a big shortage of sw developers and that it is abstract thinking as well, it was a very good fit. My first job was to write gfx for a driving simulator .

About string theory:
Hehehe. . Actually, the prof where I made the masters thesis worked in string theory. The basic idea is quite simple:
the elementary particles are not "zero dimensional" points (no extensions in any direction) but one dimensional, like a string. This means they can oscilate, like the strings of a guitar. To calculate this through is very difficult though. One surprising thing is that it only works in certain number of dimensions and that 4 is not among them . The additional dimensions are rolled in so tight that we don't see them. The most measurable effect of these additional dimension would be a change to the law of gravitation at small differences like say 1 mm. So, you have to put two lumps 1 mm apartt from each other and *very* accurately measure the gravitational force between them and ignore all other forces. This is just about the limit of what we can do and it might well be that in a few years time there will be a big discovery on that front.



Ah, why do I write all this, when you know everything already? Seriously that is much more than most people know.



Theoreticians don't need so much money. But I also think that at first many did string theory because they wanted to do pure maths and it was pure maths . However, I really think now that it might in the froseeable future not only be measureable, but that it might come out victorious from the measurements.