A watch worn by a particle of light would not tick at all. Light realizes the dreams of Ponce de Leon and the cosmetics industry: it doesn't age.

How can a speck of a universe be physically identical to the great expanse we view in the heavens above?

The beauty of string theory is the metaphor kind of really comes very close to the reality. The strings of string theory are vibrating the particles, vibrating the forces of nature into existence, those vibrations are sort of like musical notes. So string theory, if it's correct, would be playing out the score of the universe.

Far from being accidental details, the properties of nature's basic building blocks are deeply entwined with the fabric of space and time.

I'd say many features of string theory don't mesh with what we observe in everyday life.

If string theory is right, the microscopic fabric of our universe is a richly intertwined multidimensional labyrinth within which the strings of the universe endlessly twist and vibrate, rhythmically beating out the laws of the cosmos.

The number of e-mails and letters that I get from choreographers, from sculptors, from composers who are being inspired by science is huge.