There is a theory in physics that explains, at the deepest level, nearly all of the phenomena that rule our daily lives . . . This theory bears the unassuming name "The Standard Model of Elementary Particles," or the "Standard Model," for short. It deserves to be better known, and it deserves a better name. I call it "The Theory of Almost Everything."The Standard Model has a surprisingly low profile for such a fundamental and successful theory.... In physics news items, the Standard Model usually plays the whipping boy. Reports of successful experimental tests of the theory have an air of disappointment, and every hint of the theory's inadequacy is greeted with glee. It is the Rodney Dangerfield of physical theories, it "don't get no respect." But it is, perhaps, the pinnacle of human intellectual achievement to date.