Its a very simple question someone asked me, i couldn't answer?

Microscopes are incapable of this level of magnification. The photon and the electron (light and electron microscopes) are too large to give a picture of what you are wanting to see. Atomic mapping is done mathematically (look up the Schrodinger Equation). I'm not sure what problems with the universe you are talking about. I can tell you this, String theory and Brane Theory are two completely separate things, and the proof of one is contrary to the other in many respects. The string theory is not talking about actual strings, either. It is a way of describing behavior (i.e. energy moving through a guitar string when it is plucked and the existence of the other strings on the guitar). The two also seek to give some account of the existence of parrallel universes. They are only theories, not laws, and neither is proven. String theory suggests that a particle (an electron specifically) has the ability to be two places at the same time. I think this shows that there is something inherently wrong with the theory and the math driving it. A function is no longer a function if, for a given dependent variable, the exists two independent values. Hope this helps. Tell the nephew to keep thinking. This is how new theories are formulated. Hopefully, he can come up with something better.