End of Physics Good article. A little out dated though. There has

been a revolution in string theory since 1993-94.

And infact, it has been realised that the theory is much more complicated and interesting than previously thought. The problem with string theory is that it is not clear what the theory is because most things are very hard to calculate and the theory is a hard to formulate based on a fundamental symmetry principle. However, over the last 8 years or so, it has been realised that certain quantities can be calculated exactly and they point to an amazing unification within the context of string theories. Before 1994, it was thought that there are 5 different possibly consitent string theories one could write down. However, recently, it has been realised that there five different string theories are actually different phases of the same theory, and infact there is another theory, called M-theory which emcompasses all the different string theories. M-theory lives in 11 dimensions and not 10. It is NOT a theory of strings. At long distances, it looks like a theory called 11 dimensional supergravity, which is basically a very souped up version of Einstein`s General relativity in 11 dimensions. At small distances, its not clear what the theory is yet although some facts are known. For example it is known that the theory has membranes, not strings. If anything is a theory of everything, M-theory is considered to be it. However, because we know so little about this theory, we are very very far from the end of physics.

A few other points:

1)There have been some recent theoretical advances

which makes it possible that actually the scale at which string effects become important is not 10

No More Hiroshimas Anywhere, Ever Dear Ferozk, Fuzair and some others,

Lets just get a few facts out in the open about the summer in 1945.

The US strategic boming survey, set up by the war dept., concluded (after Japan had surrendered) that Japan will surrender definitely prior to Dec 31st and probably prior to Nov. 1st. Could the American leaders have know this in Aug 1945. Of course yes. The Japanese code had been broken and the Japanese messages were intercepted. THey (the Japanese) had intructed their Ambassador in Moscow to work on peace negotiations with the Allies. And it was clear from these messages that Japan was going to surrender any moment as long as the Americans do not insist on unconditional surrender...i.e. if they are willing to accept that the emperor, a holy figure to the Japanese, remain in place. The US rejected all this and actually dropped the bomb before the Russians entered the war against Japan. The Russian were due to declare war on Aug 8th. The bomb was dropped to make sure that Japan surrenders to the American, not the Russians and that US would occupy post war Japan. All that stuff about US lives being lost in a ground invasion etc is just what the state`s version of history is.

Cracking the Code of Life Informative.

I am not quite sure how to feel about the human genome project. In our exceptionally commercial world, it seems to me that this technology will only benefit the rich and the powerful. The technology will be controlled by a few powerful coorporations, which will charge a ridiculous amount for their ``services``. So while right now, the difference between children of rich and children of poor is based on environment and availability of opportunities, with this new technology, the difference can be made to be genetic also. That is a scary thought. With the disparity between the rich and the poor being already disgusting, this new technology will take it off the charts, so to say.

Why I’m proud to be a Pakistani Re: #2 Urstruly

Just curious, which freedom are you talking about?

Are more than half the Pakistanis who dont have latrines to take a dump in, or those who dont have clean drinking water etc, are they free to make any choice in their lives; what freedom do they exactly have which they will lose if that jawan did not die at the border. Not that I have anything against the jawan...but the sad thing is that most of the jawans on both sides of the border come from impoverished backgrounds to fight wars that they dont really benefit from...they die for abstract concepts of nationalism which are meant to control our lives...they die for their ``motherland``. Should we be blinded by this jingoistic nationalism to the point that we are willing to annihilate innocent people on the other side and be annihilated ourselves in the process. Because thats what nuclear weapons are for...to annihilate civilian populations. Surely the ``freedom`` that you talk about cant be worth it. It may be worth it for the ruling elite, who have their cars and airconditioned houses because they

have got something to lose; but it cant be worth it for most who are dispossessed.

Where Mountains Move Lots of information. But for what? About testing something as abhorent as a nuclear weapon! I find it hard to understand that perfectly nice people support the concept of nuclear weapons. I think its because we live in such constructed realities...that the scale of destruction and suffering caused by nuclear weapons is beyond our grasp...its almost as if its a game. Its beyond our experience...the number of people who will die in such an explosion is just a number...without any human face associated with it; it can be 100,000 or it can be a million or 10 million...our reaction wont really change all that much.