Conversation:

read the Elegant Universe by Brian Greene... it talks about all this and more in its most recent manifestation, Superstring theory!!! I will probably put more up on this later (since M-theory~ the "most recent" version of superstring theory has come very close to being my religion )

String theory is exciting stuff, and M-theory may well achieve great things. The important distinction is that the standard model has been extensively tested and matches all experimental results. Superstring theory is still a long way from the experimental stage.

great! i love string theory and unification!