our present picture of physical reality, particularly in relation to the nature of time, is due for a grand shake up

As you say, the way string theory requires all these extra dimensions and this comes from certain consistency requirements about how string should behave and so on.

It may well be there is something else going on in the brain that we don't have an inkling of at the moment.

No doubt there are some who, when confronted with a line of mathematical symbols, however simply presented, can only see the face of a stern parent or teacher who tried to force into them a non-comprehending parrot-like apparent competence--a duty and a duty alone--and no hint of magic or beauty of the subject might be allowed to come through.

This book is about physics and its about physics and its relationship with mathematics and how they seem to be intimately related and to what extent can you explore this relationship and trust it.

My own way of thinking is to ponder long and I hope deeply on problems and for a long time which I keep away for years and years and I never really let them go.

Ambition, idly vain; revenge and malice swell her train.