Witten on "brane analog"

A few days ago Nature Physics published a letter by Bradley et. al. at Lancaster University on a supposed "brane analog" in low-temperature He3 physics:

In cosmological 'braneworld' models, our Universe exists on a brane embedded in higher-dimensional space. It's hard to test this theory, but there may be a laboratory analogue in helium-3 to probe brane-antibrane collisions — collisions that could have led to the Big Bang.

Here's the University's press release, which boldly begins:

Low-temperature physicists at Lancaster University may have found a laboratory test of the "untestable" string theory.

Peter Woit was skeptical, and notes how the UK press typically hyped the story -- here's the Telegraph, which makes the finding sound definite:

A "universe in a test tube" that could be used to assess theories of everything has been created by physicists.

And then it goes on and on about extra-dimensions and p-branes and all that.

So I thought I'd ask Edward Witten, one of the predominant string theorists in the world, and sure enough here's what he told me:

There is definitely no test of string theory here.

He goes on to say,

However, if one sets the bar a little lower, there is something that is interesting. Nature has a remarkable way of generating similar structures at different length scales, so the occurrence of various kinds of string and other topological defects in superconductors, liquid helium, etc. is a possible hint that nature likes such things at a much smaller length scale.