Absurd press releases from major universities hyping the idea that “string theorists have finally found a way to test string theory” have been a feature of theoretical physics for decades now. This nonsense is never going to stop. Latest example is here, based on this paper.
If the LHC were to find states such as those discussed in this paper, it would take less than 24 hours for there to be several papers on the arXiv giving a “string phenomenology” explanation for them. As a way to discredit science and the scientific method, this kind of press release is pretty effective.
