Author Archives: woit

The Anderson-Higgs Mechanism

Posted on November 13, 2010 by woit

One reason for this posting is that exchanges in the comment section of the previous one led me to look into some history, and I found some odd and possibly interesting facts I hadn’t previously known. So, part of this … Continue reading →

Posted in Favorite Old Posts, Uncategorized | 31 Comments

Massive

Posted on November 10, 2010 by woit

There’s a wonderful new book about particle physics that has just come out, Massive:The Missing Particle that Sparked the Greatest Hunt in Science, by Ian Sample, who is a science correspondent for the Guardian. The topic is the huge open … Continue reading →

Posted in Book Reviews | 29 Comments

This and That

Posted on November 9, 2010 by woit

There’s a new preprint here explaining the scientific case for running the Tevatron past 2011. A couple weeks ago the P5 subpanel came out with its report on the subject, generating news stories “Momentum builds for Tevatron extension” and “Panel … Continue reading →

Posted in Experimental HEP News, Langlands, Uncategorized | 10 Comments

Once Before Time

Posted on November 8, 2010 by woit

There’s a new popular book out this week entitled Once Before Time: a whole story of the universe, by Martin Bojowald, promoting his ideas about “Loop Quantum Cosmology”. It’s a translation of the original German edition, Zuruck vor den Urknall, … Continue reading →

Posted in Book Reviews | 25 Comments

Simons Center Inaugural Conference

Posted on November 5, 2010 by woit

I was out in Stony Brook for the past couple days, to attend festivities surrounding the inauguration of the new building there which will house the Simons Center for Geometry and Physics. The Center is funded by Jim Simons, whose … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 10 Comments

Recent Hot Topics in Hep-th

Posted on November 4, 2010 by woit

SLAC’s SPIRES database has a link you can use to search for articles heavily cited during 2009 and 2010. Just looking at the hep-th papers, three are review articles of older work on applying AdS/CFT to condensed matter physics, three … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 18 Comments

This Week’s Hype

Posted on November 3, 2010 by woit

Way back in 1997, string theorists were already getting rather touchy about people pointing out string theory’s testability problems. At that time, Gordon Kane published an article in Physics Today with the title String Theory is Testable, Even Supertestable in … Continue reading →

Posted in This Week's Hype | 33 Comments

Bogdanov Update

Posted on October 18, 2010 by woit

Earlier this year the Bogdanov brothers published Le Visage de Dieu, yet another book dealing with their ideas about the big-bang and pre-big-bang physics. This follows their earlier Avant le Big Bang, and L’équation Bogdanov : Le secret de l’origine … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 22 Comments

The Gathering Storm: Category 5

Posted on October 14, 2010 by woit

Back in 2005 an illustrious group was organized to produce a report addressing the state of science and technology in the United States, resulting in what became known as the “Gathering Storm” report since it was entitled Rising Above the … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 21 Comments

Various and Sundry

Posted on October 11, 2010 by woit

Yet another random collection of topics of possible interest: Things have been going well at the LHC recently, and there’s a new dashboard page at which progress can be followed. For the latest from the LHC, see the talks at … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 16 Comments