Applications
In 1982 Michael Freedman produced a bizarre example of a topological 4-manifold, called the E8 manifold, whose intersection form is given by the E8 lattice. This manifold is an example of a topological manifold which admits no smooth structure and is not even triangulable.
In string theory, the heterotic string is a peculiar hybrid of a 26-dimensional bosonic string and a 10-dimensional superstring. In order for the theory to work correctly, the 16 mismatched dimensions must be compactified on an even, unimodular lattice of rank 16. There are two such lattices: Γ8⊕Γ8 and Γ16 (constructed in a fashion analogous to that of Γ8). These lead to two version of the heterotic string known as the E8×E8 heterotic string and the SO(32) heterotic string.
Read more about this topic: E8 Lattice