This Science News article does a great job explaining exactly why this research is so important, but here are the major points.  The first thing you need to know is that gravity is the weakest, and most perplexing of the four, natural forces.  For example, a simple magnet can pick up small metal objects, boldly defying the entire gravitational force of the earth.  That’s staggering when you think about it.  Referred to as the “hierarchy problem”, this example illustrates the discrepancies between gravity and the other forces, which are 30 orders of magnitude more powerful.

Gravity refuses to play nice with physicists when they try to create theories that describe our universe from the very large to the very small, otherwise known as theories of everything.  Try to establish a theory of everything is what frustrated Einstein towards the end of his life, and it’s what eludes physicists all over the world today.  That’s why these experiments are so critically important.  Because now, scientists think they know the answer.  The idea, hinted at by string theory, is that gravity leaks out into another dimension.

So, if gravity is leaking into this other dimension, wouldn’t we see it occur in what are the most gravitationally powerful celestial objects we know of: black holes?  The first section of the article digs into this idea, but the long story short is that no shrinkage, or evaporation as they call it, has been detected in any black holes so far.

That gravity leaks into this other dimension –which may be a fraction of a millimeter in diameter –may not yet been observed in black holes of the celestial magnitude, but what about tiny, micro black holes?

That’s where the LHC comes into play.  If it can create these tiny black holes when it goes online again this November, it should be able to create a lot of them.  With all those micro black holes popping into existence, scientists would have an excellent opportunity to see if they evaporate quickly.  And, if they do, this would support gravity leaking into the other dimension.

 Source: Science News, “Hunting Hidden Dimensions”