After briefly reviewing basic concepts of perturbative string theory, we
explain in simple terms some of the new findings that created excitement among
the string physicists. These developments include non-perturbative dualities
and a unified picture that embraces the so-far known theories. (An overview for
non-experts)Comment: 16 p, latex, lprocl.sty, 12 figs, Contribution to the Proceedings of
Lepton-Photon 97. Continuous updates at
http://nxth21.cern.ch/~lerche/papers/strings.ps.g
