Copy of Precision tests of gravitation at short ranges

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In physics progress is made by making theories more simple and more universal. This continues the tradition started by Isaac Newton and Michael Faraday where the seemingly disparate and complicated became unified and pleasingly simple. At present there is conflict between the theories that describe phenomena at the very smallest scales, probed by particle accelerators like the LHC, and the very largest scales as observed through telescopes by astronomers. Quantum theory has successfully described the forces of the sub-atomic world and Faraday's forces of electricity and magnetism. On the other hand the evolution of the Universe is described, according to Einstein's relativity, by the bending of space and time by matter. Both these theories are flawed as they are strongly mutually exclusive. The main reason for this incompatibility is the apparent weakness of gravitation compared with the other forces. Physicists have boldly postulated that, fundamentally, gravity is significantly stronger than it appears to us. In order to sense its full strength we have to design experiments that can explore space at the scale of 10 or so micrometers (which is thinner than a human hair). If gravity were found to be stronger at these distances this would be convincing evidence for a new theory of quantum gravity called String Theory and a number of deep-rooted problems associated with the unification of gravity and quantum theory could be resolved, hopefully leading to a simplified and more pleasing view of the Universe.