(ominous music) - I study string theory which is the interface between particle physics and gravity.

Particle physics is the study of the microscopic details of all the things you see around you.

Whether it's solids or liquids or the silicone in your computer's transistors.

Gravity is the study of what keeps us on the Earth, and what keeps galaxies orbiting around each other, and the large scale structure of the universe.

So why are these two things related to each other, the ultra small and the ultra large.

Early in the history of the universe, everything was very dense and very hot, and very compact, and understanding how that relates to the large scale structure of what we see, that's what string theory tries to understand.

It's hard to summarize the history of the universe in 30 seconds.