Strings and things
For physics interested people, this article at Cosmic Variance on string theory was quite interesting to me. Particularly the talk of how quantum field theory doesn't really have "particles" as fundamental stuff, but as a type of thing that can be observed. So replacing them with strings has confusing ramifications for the underlying theory. Now that I actually know a little bit about quantum field theory, I think I may actually be ready to look at what string theory is, and this is kind of exciting. I have wonderedd how the stringiness actually translates mathematically - some additional degree of freedom, with boundary condition? Where exactly do you put that in? Is thinking of it as a string really the best way? The hints in the article about how distance measures come out were also tantalizing.

Of course, I also am interested in learning about the roads to unification that start in gravity, which I lean to because of my personal fondness for general relativity as a beautiful theory. The exciting thing on this side is with knowledge of quantum field thoery I now have an impression of where those roads are aiming.

That is the difficulty of understanding such grandiose things as unifying theories, there are already such richnesses in the things they are unifying that I could easily wander in the seperate forests forever without having the hubris to attempt to weave all the trees together (to mix a nonsensical metaphor... i think i need more coffee.)