ABSTRACT
This is a book about string theory. Where does string theory fit into the larger canvas of science and physics? ‘Science’ is a big tent with many tent dwellers. Its discoveries have been the primary facilitator of the enormous economic growth of the last few centuries, and few politicians fail to pay at least lip service to it. In the United Kingdom, the annual government budget for science is around ten billion pounds,1 although the overall sum spent is slightly larger because of charitable funding of medical research and the industrial research done in large pharmaceutical and engineering companies. In this big friendly tent, where does string theory fit in? The short answer is: not where the money is. In the most recent academic year, string theory research received somewhere south of one tenth of one per cent of total science funding in the United Kingdom. In the affairs of pounds, shillings and pence, string theory is a tiny tiddler even within a relatively small pond.
