Have there been any advancements made experimentally on string theory?

String theory and theorists, and their careers, seem to be dead in the water. And although the Higgs Boson was predicted by string theory, no one seems to think that its recent discovery at the LHC did anything to elevate string theory to a true theory (it's at best a hypothesis now).

I personally am very skeptical of ST. It seems more an exercise in math rather than a hypothesis of physics. And the math does not make the physics so. Case in point, I can mathematically show that the crowing rooster in the morning causes the Sun to rise. That is to say, pretty much every time the rooster crows, the Sun comes up. But really? The mere idea that they added all those extra dimensions just so the answers did not come out "silly" makes me highly skeptical. [See source.]

As to other quantum type hypotheses, I'm skeptical of all the quantum based theories. I think the Copenhagen Interpretation is all wrong. It's the space surrounding quanta, not the quanta, that has the waves and wave-like behavior. Check out the Couder experiment and pilot waves on the web; interesting reading and an alternative to the Copenhagen Interpretation.