Branes! And no, it’s not a new Zombie cereal knockoff.
You know, like how they have Choco-Pebbles in the 50lb bags at the store?
Anyhoo, Brane theory (short for Membrane Theory or M-Theory) puts forth the idea that all matter, instead of being a collection of tiny balls of matter, are instead collections of tiny vibrating strings.
Now Jason, you say, isn’t this simply Superstring theory?
Well, yes, you are correct.
M-Theory seeks to unite the quantum world of strings with our observable world.
The vibrational frequency of the string determines what we perceive it as (ie, gravity, matter, energy).
A fascinating topic, especially when you get to the part about there being multiple dimensions, or that our universe could be floating along on one of the membranes.
This is a very fascinating topic, and Tega Jessa over at UniverseToday.com has a great article about M-Theory