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The most advanced field of theoretical physics today is perhaps the Quantum Mechanics (QM). According to its Standard Model of particles, the universe we live in is made of zero-dimensional and point-like particles, such as, quarks, bosons, electrons, protons, neutrons, etc. Although the model is almost complete, it lacks some experimental evidences, specially, it fails to account for the ever-mysterious gravity. Standard Model tries to explain our existence not only from mass perspective of the subatomic level but it also boldly tries to uncover the mysteries behind the four fundamental forces known to us electromagnetic force, weak nuclear interaction, strong nuclear interaction, and the gravitational force, which holds everything together. It explains the forces by associating a force-carrier particle to each force photon for electromagnetic force, W & Z particles for weak nuclear interaction, gluon for strong nuclear interaction, and graviton for gravitational force. So far, there is experimental verification for the first three force-carriers except for graviton. As a matter of fact, existence of graviton is considered to be one of the greatest unsolved mysteries of physics today. So to explain our subatomic existence and the mysteries behind the fundamental forces including gravity, some physicists in the 70s came up with their versions of the Standard Model and the String theory is one of those theories.

Apparently String theory not only removes and replaces the point-like particles with strings, it is also hoped that String theory will one day develop into a sensible quantum theory of gravity. Moreover, String theory appears to be able to “unify” the four known natural forces (electromagnetic, weak, strong, and gravitational) by describing them with the same set of equations in Superstring theory. Superstring theory is an attempt to explain all of the particles and fundamental forces of nature in one theory by modeling them as vibrations of tiny supersymmetric strings. Superstring theory is a shorthand for “supersymmetric string theory”.

So what are “Strings” then? According to scientist Freeman Dyson, a superstring is “a wiggly curve which moves in a ten-dimensional space-time of peculiar symmetry”. Trying to visualize such a 'thing', will most probably give anyone a headache instead. A lot of people may not realize it but the String theory is a purely mathematical abstraction i.e. the whole theory is entirely based on math and very little on human imagination unlike the Newtonian theories of physics. String theory is nothing short of very complex mathematics. So complex that only a few people understand them. So instead of visualizing strings, just imagine how complex the math might be!

Basically the concepts behind the Superstring theory is that we live in a ten-dimensional universe filled with amass of superstrings which are very very small. To give you a real idea of how small is small; understand that a proton in the center of a nucleus is about a ten trillionth of a centimeter across; that's pretty small. A single superstring, on the other hand, is about one hundred billion billion times smaller than a proton. So if that infinitesimal proton was the size of our visible universe, then a superstring will be the size of our planet Earth. It is quite hard to understand how small that is.

Moreover, superstrings might be the answer to the search for the 'theory of everything'. Theory Of Everything (TOE) is thought to be the formula which will be able to express and explain everything existent in our universe in one or two simple and tidy equations. Trouble is some of the math with superstrings is quite complex and nobody really have a clue what any of it means. Some of the superstring theorists also think that we are really close to finding this TOE, which might as well mean that we live in a higher dimensional space, probably 10-dimensional and not the 3 or 4-dimensional world we know about. Why 10 you may ask? Well, because superstrings can only vibrate in 10 dimensions. But the problem is that nobody is smart enough to be able to solve the math behind superstrings. It is going to require techniques that we just don't have yet.

Further studies of string theory have revealed that it predicts not just strings, but also higher-dimensional objects called branes. String theory strongly suggests the existence of ten or eleven spacetime dimensions in M-theory, as opposed to the relativistic four which Einstein figured out.