String theories seem to have created a breakthrough in theoretical physics. At long last a unfied theory of all the fundamental interactions, including gravity, looks possible. This, according to theorist Stephen Hawking, will mark the end of theoretical physics as we have known it, since we will then have a single consistent theory within which to explain all natural phenomena from elementary particles to galactic superclusters. Strings themselves are extremely tiny entities, smaller than the Planck scale, which form loops whose vibrational harmonics can be used to model all the standard elementary particles. Of course the mathematical complexities of the theory are daunting, and physicists are still at a very early stage in understanding how strings and their theoretical cousins superstrings can be used. This proceedings volume gives an overview of the intense recent work in the field and reports latest developments.weiterlesen