Is String Theory Still A Leading Theory?

No definitive predictions in over 4 decades.

No empirical evidence for strings?

At a recent conference a leading string theorist at the Institute For Advanced Study commented that the beauty of string theory was such that it virtually has to be right, and that there must be some fundamental principle underlying it, but we don’t know what that principle is.

My question is: can string theory be differentiated from junk science if it makes no contact with the physical world we live in?