One of the major problems with the standard model is resolved by the transition to string theory. As previously stated, equations cannot be renormalized because the math will not function correctly at zero distance. With string theory, however, interactions do not occur at zero distance but rather at the Planck length 1.

With string theory the annihilation of two closed strings into a single closed string is a smooth surface, with point particles this is not the case 3.

Another major flaw of the standard model is that it describes the interactions of elementary particles but not where they come from. This knowledge is known through experimental data only. String theory should explain where the four forces come from, why the particles that we see exist, why these particles have the masses and charges that they do, why there are four spacetime dimensions that we live in, and the nature of spacetime and gravity 3. As strings move through time, they trace out a worldsheet similar to the worldlines of point theory. They vibrate, and these different vibrational modes give rise to the various particles that we can "see". The different modes are seen as the different masses and spins. String theory possesses the necessary degrees of freedom to describe all known interactions--something that cannot be said about the standard model. These degrees of freedom arise from the spacetime dimensions that strings live in. Whereas we can only see four spacetime dimensions, string theory has ten or eleven. Six or seven of these dimensions are curled and thus effectively invisible; the idea is that motion in these compacted dimensions gives rise to the properties of the particles 2. Kaluza-Klein showed that if a fifth dimension were compacted and added to our spacetime, it would allow a four dimensional theory of general relativity plus electromagnetism. If the electron is allowed this extra degree of freedom, then the photon arises and the electron obey's Maxwell's equations 3. Elimination of the extra dimensions through Kaluza-Klein compactification or constrainment of matter and gravity into a three-dimensional subspace called the three brane is called braneworld theories 5. In the case of Kaluza-Klein compactification, the extra dimensions are wrapped on Calabi-Yau Manifolds and Orbifolds that are far too small to be seen with modern technology 2. The extra degrees of freedom afforded by string theory explains more than electrons. They predict the existence of the graviton, include the same gauge theories as the standard model, and predict supersymmetry at low energies such as the electroweak scale. Current particle accelerators are only reaching to about 10^(-16)cm, so point-particle approximations are still successful as approximations. Once accelerators reach smaller scales, however, supersymmetry may be revealed and point-particle approximations may prove to be incorrect 4.