Copy of Precision tests of gravitation at short ranges

物理学的进步是通过使理论更简单和更普遍而取得的。这延续了艾萨克·牛顿和迈克尔·法拉第开创的传统，即看似不同和复杂的事物变得统一和令人愉悦的简单。目前，两种理论之间存在冲突，一种是描述由大型强子对撞机等粒子加速器探测到的最小尺度现象，另一种是由天文学家通过望远镜观测到的最大尺度现象。量子理论成功地描述了亚原子世界的力和法拉第的电力和磁力。另一方面，根据爱因斯坦的相对论，宇宙的演化是通过物质对空间和时间的弯曲来描述的。这两种理论都是有缺陷的，因为它们强烈地相互排斥。这种不相容的主要原因是引力与其他力相比明显弱。物理学家大胆地假设，从根本上说，引力比我们所看到的要强大得多。为了感知它的全部强度，我们必须设计出可以在10微米左右（比人的头发还细）的尺度上探索空间的实验。如果发现引力在这些距离上更强，这将是一个令人信服的证据，证明一种新的量子引力理论——弦理论，一些与引力和量子理论统一相关的根深蒂固的问题可能会得到解决，有望导致一个简化的、更令人愉快的宇宙观。

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.