Mainstream memes.

I had to chuckle at this brief picture gallery explanation of string theory in the Times. The fourth page reads:

Beautiful as the idea sounds, when string theory is applied in the ordinary three spatial dimensions it doesn?t work mathematically, predicting the wrong numbers for constants such as pi and the speed of light. It also predicts that the whole Universe should disappear. And if the strings were vibrating in ordinary space, we should be able to measure the effects. Fail!

I don't think whoever wrote that has quite got the hang of it.

This is a fail.

This is a fail .

This is a fail.

This is a fail.

I don't pretend to be the arbiter of such matters and I doubt there's a rule book, but I'm not sure that the need for seven extra dimensions qualifies as a fail in the same way that idiotic activists, 'Australien' gift shops selling the New Zealand flag, parking for disabled badgers and the world's most precocious toddler do. Sorry, but it's probably a fail of fail, which is another way of saying a fail fail or fail squared. At this point someone will probably divide by zero and the universe will explode.

On the other hand...

... win.