1 M-theory demands a universe with 11 dimensions, including a dimension of time and the three familiar spatial dimensions. The rest are curled up too small for us to see.

2 One possibility predicted by M-theory is supersymmetry, an idea that says fundamental particles have heavy – and as yet undiscovered – twins, with curious names such as selectrons and squarks.

3 If M-theory does indeed turn out to enable a unified theory, Hawking may be able in future to say how the universe started, but as a physicist he cannot answer the question "why?"

4 Evidence in support of M-theory might also come from the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at Cern, the European particle physics laboratory near Geneva.

5 Instead M-theory predicts that a great many universes were created out of nothing.

6 His talk will focus on M-theory, a broad mathematical framework that encompasses string theory, which is regarded by many physicists as the best hope yet of developing a theory of everything.

7 M-theory, if it is confirmed, would be "the unifying theory Einstein was hoping to find," the authors write.

8 According to M-theory, "ours is not the only universe," the authors say.

9 The unified theory that M-theory hopes to be has been the cosmological Holy Grail since Einstein.

10 Depending how you set it up, M-theory can describe any of 10500 universes.

11 M-theory, the dominant version of string theory, holds that the universe is made up of unfathomably small slices of a 2-dimensional membrane, wriggling in 11-dimensional space.

12 The idea behind it is "M-theory," which, he says, allows there to be many universes that were created out of nothing,[] none of which required the intervention of God.

13 Hawking said that if he could travel through time -- which he said is theoretically possible -- he would go to the future to "find if M-theory is indeed a theory of everything."

14 Confirmation of supersymmetry would be a shot in the arm for M-theory and help physicists explain how each forces at work in the universe arose from one super-force at the dawn of time.

15 "Though if there were such a God, I would like to ask how ever did He think of anything as complicated as M-theory in 11 dimensions." Well, quite.

16 The image that comes to mind here, others have written about M-theory, is of a God blowing soap bubbles.

17 Though if there were such a God, I would like to ask how ever did He think of anything as complicated as M-theory in 11 dimensions.

18 Confirmation of supersymmetry would be a shot in the arm for M-theory and help physicists explain how each force at work in the universe arose from one super-force at the dawn of time.