  a NewsHour with Jim Lehrer Transcript Online NewsHour  April
26, 1999  David Gergen, editor-at-large of U.S. News and World
Report, talks with Brian Greene, author and Columbia University
Physics and Mathematics professor, on his latest book, Elegant
Universe: Superstrings, Hidden Dimensions, and the Quest for the
Ultimate Theory.   DAVID GERGEN: Brian, "The Elegant Universe."
Why do you and other physicists call the universe elegant?
BRIAN GREENE, Author, "The Elegant Universe:" Well, I think the
best way to explain what we physicists mean when we describe the
universe as elegant is to reflect back on Einstein's relentless
30-year search for the so-called unified theory. By unified
theory Einstein meant a theory founded on a few principles of
such breadth and depth that effectively any question about the
physical universe would be within the theory's ability to
answer. For instance, the unified theory would describe the
frantic dance of subatomic particles and the majestic swirl of
heavenly galaxies using