Strings 2000’s Top 10 Bemuse Belfast

Mermin replies: I cited the New York Times because it set me thinking about such lists by characterizing the questions as ones physicists (not just string theorists) would most like to know the answers to. When I submitted the column to Physics Today, they told me about the Web site. Visiting it, I learned that the Times, surprisingly, had got the 10 questions exactly right. Since I had made it clear that the questions originated with string theorists, I saw no reason to cite the Web site too. But visiting it again, I now note the heading “Physics Problems for the Next Millennium.” So I was wrong to attribute this overstatement to the Times.

I also visited the Queen’s University Web site recommended by Michael Duff and was pleased and surprised to find my own 10 questions listed alongside those of the string theorists. I have not noticed either set posted on the Lexington Avenue Subway, but I have not been down to the city in many months.