"Edward Witten" interview, Superstrings: A Theory of Everything? (1992) ed. P.C.W. Davies, Julian Brown
as quoted by K.C. Cole, "A Theory of Everything" New York Times Magazine (1987) Oct.18
[Schwarz, J. H., The early history of string theory and supersymmetry, 2012, https://arxiv.org/abs/1201.0981]
"Loop Quantum Gravity," The New Humanists: Science at the Edge (2003)
"A perspective on the landscape problem" arXiv (Feb 15, 2012)
“String theory is extremely attractive because gravity is forced upon us.”
as quoted by Michio Kaku, Hyperspace: A Scientific Odyssey Through Parallel Universes, Time Warps, and the 10th Dimension (1995)
Context: String theory is extremely attractive because gravity is forced upon us. All known consistent string theories include gravity, so while gravity is impossible in quantum field theory as we have known it, it is obligatory in string theory.
“Jesus could not have imagined such an idea as Albert Einstein's theory of relativity.”
Source: Rescuing the Bible from Fundamentalism (1991), p. 25
Interview in The Hindu (2013)
Context: The improved understanding of the equations of hydrodynamics is general in nature; it applies to all quantum field theories, including those like quantum chromodynamics that are of interest to real world experiments. I think this is a good (though minor) example of the impact of string theory on experiments. At our current stage of understanding of string theory, we can effectively do calculations only in particularly simple — particularly symmetric — theories. But we are able to analyse these theories very completely; do the calculations completely correctly. We can then use these calculations to test various general predictions about the behaviour of all quantum field theories. These expectations sometimes turn out to be incorrect. With the string calculations to guide you can then correct these predictions. The corrected general expectations then apply to all quantum field theories, not just those very symmetric ones that string theory is able to analyse in detail.
“Einstein's theory of relativity”
From the Author's Preface to First Edition (1918)
Space—Time—Matter (1952)
Context: Einstein's theory of relativity has advanced our ideas of the structure of the cosmos a step further. It is as if a wall which separated us from Truth has collapsed. Wider expanses and greater depths are now exposed to the searching eye of knowledge, regions of which we had not even a presentiment. It has brought us much nearer to grasping the plan that underlies all physical happening.
"Einstein and the Search for Unification", p. 10 https://books.google.com/books?id=rEaUIxukvy4C&pg=PA10, in The legacy of Albert Einstein: a collection of essays in celebration of the year of physics (2007)
“Supersymmetry arises naturally in string theory.”
It was originally motivated by string theory.
Source: [The World's Largest Experiment, 2013, https://www.sns.ias.edu/sites/default/files/World's_largest_experiment_%20Delhi.pdf] (public talk at Tryst, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi)
