Origins of String Theory
1968 – The Spark
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Gabriele Veneziano (Italy) discovers the Veneziano amplitude, a formula describing strong nuclear interactions.
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This became the first clue that strings could underlie particle physics.
1970 – The String Interpretation
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Yoichiro Nambu (Japan), Leonard Susskind (USA), and Holger Bech Nielsen (Denmark) show that Veneziano’s formula works if particles are seen as tiny vibrating strings, not points.
1974 – A New Vision
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John Schwarz (USA) and Joel Scherk (France) propose that string theory naturally includes gravity, making it a candidate for a “theory of everything.”
1980s–1990s – Superstring Revolution
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Development of superstring theory with 5 consistent versions.
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The discovery of M-Theory (Edward Witten, 1995) unified them into one framework.
