String theorists think that the world is made of matter that exists independently of space and time.

ECONOMIST: A new ��theory of everything�� is gaining ground

The self-interest of string theorists is thus stifling physics.

ECONOMIST: Theoretical physics

String theorists can perhaps afford to take a different tack, because - with all due respect - it doesn't make any practical difference to anyone in the wider world who's right and who's wrong in that particular discipline.

BBC: Climate science and acts of creation

However, the biggest problem, both authors believe, is that string theorists have promoted their subject aggressively, often taking the best jobs in universities and blocking the advancement of physicists who would seek to use other means to unify the laws of physics.

ECONOMIST: Theoretical physics

In recent years some of the brightest theorists have argued that the very presence of humans in the universe indicates which of the many string theories is valid namely, those that allow the universe to exist as observers see it.

ECONOMIST: Theoretical physics