Science: String theory was first formulated in the early 1970s with the objective of explaining aspects of the strong interactions of particle physics. The strings were literally strings of energy that bound together a quark and an antiquark to form subatomic particles called mesons. This original string theory, however, was ultimately unsuccessful and it was only consistent in 10 dimensions of spacetime. String theory was then reincarnated as a unifying theory of quantum gravity, with breakthroughs in the mid-1980s ushering this grander version into the mainstream. A recent turn of events is leading a growing fraction of string theory research back to studying specific laboratory systems, including those of condensed-matter physics.