Author Archives: woit

This Week’s Hype

Posted on September 28, 2011 by woit

It had to happen. New Scientist managed to find a physicist willing to describe the OPERA result as “evidence for string theory”: So if OPERA’s results hold up, they could provide support for the existence of sterile neutrinos, extra dimensions … Continue reading →

Posted in This Week's Hype | 69 Comments

This and That

Posted on September 27, 2011 by woit

Since everyone wants to hear about the faster-than-light neutrinos, here’s some additional information about why I don’t believe it. Jon Butterworth explains here the problem with timing the neutrinos at the CERN end. In a postscript, a senior member of … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 35 Comments

TEDxFlanders

Posted on September 25, 2011 by woit

Tommaso Dorigo and I put on a bit of a show yesterday here in Antwerp at TEDxFlanders, and the results are already available on YouTube (and Tommaso has blog postings here and here). Doing this sort of thing for 1000 … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 10 Comments

No News

Posted on September 15, 2011 by woit

I’ve been hearing no interesting news from the LHC recently, about all I’ve learned is that CMS/ATLAS haven’t even decided whether it’s worth combining their latest public data (probably not, what is much more interesting is the large amount of … Continue reading →

Posted in Experimental HEP News | 71 Comments

How to Win the Nobel Prize

Posted on September 12, 2011 by woit

I’m too busy to write much on the blog just this moment, and besides, there’s nothing of great interest I can think of that need’s writing about. So, I’ll take up commenter Shantanu’s suggestion and try and stir up a … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 57 Comments

Imagine There’s No God Particle

Posted on September 5, 2011 by woit

It’s easy if you try (as John Lennon would say). The LHC is back in business after a technical stop, getting ready to collide protons for the next couple months, perhaps reaching an integrated luminosity of about 5 inverse femtobarns. … Continue reading →

Posted in Favorite Old Posts, Uncategorized | 89 Comments

Knocking on Heaven’s Door

Posted on September 4, 2011 by woit

Lisa Randall’s new book is about to come out, it’s entitled Knocking on Heaven’s Door: How Physics and Scientific Thinking Illuminate the Universe and the Modern World. It turns out that it’s really two books in one, both of which … Continue reading →

Posted in Book Reviews | 14 Comments

LHC results put supersymmetry theory ‘on the spot’

Posted on August 28, 2011 by woit

The HEP theory community is atwitter over a BBC News story LHC results put supersymmetry theory ‘on the spot’ that reports from the Lepton-Photon 2011 conference in Mumbai, where more null results relevant to supersymmetry were reported. According to the … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 70 Comments

This Week’s Hype, Part III

Posted on August 25, 2011 by woit

Today’s Wisconsin State Journal covers the String Phenomenology 2011 conference going on in Madison this week, where, according to the organizers, about 100 scientists are discussing how to “test string theory”: The Madison conference is something of a milestone in … Continue reading →

Posted in This Week's Hype | 12 Comments

This Week’s Hype, Part II

Posted on August 21, 2011 by woit

String theory hype is still coming fast and furious, so much so that the latest edition of This Week’s Hype needs to be a double issue. Today we learn that Black holes and pulsars could reveal extra dimensions, solving that … Continue reading →

Posted in This Week's Hype | 7 Comments