If strings are as large as a billionth of a billionth (10−18) of a meter, the particles corresponding to the higher harmonic vibrations in Figure 12.4 will not have enormous masses, in excess of the Planck mass, as in the standard scenario. Instead, their masses will be only a thousand to a few thousand times that of a proton, and that’s low enough to be within reach of the Large Hadron Collider now being built at CERN.
