a theory of everything?

Ancient philosophers thought wind, water, fire and earth were the most basic elements of the cosmos, but the study of the small has since grown up. Physicists continue to carve the known universe into particles to describe everything from magnetism to what atoms are made of and how they remain stable. Yet striking similarities in the world of quantum mechanics, as the study of particles and their forces is known, has led to a one of the most important questions in modern science: Is there a single theory that can describe everything? "We understand a lot about the universe up to the first few energetic microseconds, but earlier than that our physics break down," said Mark Jackson, a theoretical physicist at Fermilab in Batavia, Illinois. "But those first moments are where the really interesting things happened." If a theory can be designed to withstand the incredible energies of the early universe as well as incorporate gravity, then a universal theory of physics could become a reality. The "standard model" of physics views particles as infinitesimal points, some of which carry basic forces. The time-tested theory is the best tool scientists have for explaining physics. But the stubbornness of the standard model has been too much for some physicists, however, leading to new theories that include gravity and work at extremely high energies. Perhaps the most popularized of them all is string theory, which describes particles as strands of energy vibrating at different "frequencies." To explain the point-like nature of particles, string theory holds that strings are wrapped up in 10 or 11 dimensions-six to seven more than are currently recognized.
Some scientists think some strings could have been stretched across the universe into "superstrings" - ones large enough to detect in space today. It's hard to imagine that the universe has two different sets of rules for physics. We know there is quantum mechanics and we know there is gravity, so it seems there should be one overall theory. A growing number of theorists are betting that it's string theory."
Space.Com