"In order for the LHC to produce some of these black holes, we really have to go beyond the normal theory of gravity," he said at the time. "We have to assume that there are extra dimensions. By the way, there are many theories that have extra dimensions. Not all of them would give rise to black holes at the LHC. It's only highly fine-tuned ones that make this possible."

So it's not correct to say that the lack of black holes suggests string theory is a failure. In fact, string theory covers so many possibilities that another theoretical physicist, Arizona State University's Lawrence Krauss, jokes that it's a "theory of anything" rather than a theory of everything. But the latest findings do eliminate some of the theoretical models, which is a useful exercise.

More Articles