This Week’s Hype

The Economist today reports that New theories and experiments should shine light on string theory. This is more of the promotional campaign for Cumrun Vafa’s “dark dimension”. We’re told that a torsion balance experiment in Austria will “according to Dr. Vafa’s calculations” possibly detect the “dark dimension”. Vafa has convinced The Economist that in the dark dimension, string theory has made a testable prediction. And for a topic that has been stuck in the mud for half a century, that should be lauded. This is complete nonsense, a shame that The Economist has been taken in by it.