Author Archives: woit

Expanding Crackpottery

Lubos Motl is getting rather concerned (yes, I know about what pops up when I link to his blog…) about recent trends in theoretical physics, especially the implications of recent work (discussed here) of well-known string theorist Erik Verlinde. He … Continue reading

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Various and Sundry

Now that the plan for running the LHC over the next few years is in place, one can start to get an idea of what new physics might emerge from it between now and 2013. For the question of the … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | 14 Comments

Particle Theory Job Market

Erich Poppitz has updated his statistics on the high energy theory job market to include data from 2009. He counts hirings to tenure-track faculty jobs, using data from the Theoretical Particle Physics Jobs Rumor Mill. For 2009, out of 12 … Continue reading

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LHC Update, More

According to John Conway, the decision coming out of Chamonix is to go with the first of the two scenarios described here: stay at 3.5 TeV/beam, then a long shutdown to fix all the splices. The idea is to run … Continue reading

Posted in Experimental HEP News | 5 Comments

Are There Cosmic Microwave Anomalies?

No. The WMAP team has just released a new set of papers based upon seven years of data from their experiment. For a summary of how this new data has sharpened some of their previous results, see the Cosmological Interpretation … Continue reading

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LHC Update

Those responsible for the LHC machine are having their yearly meeting this week in Chamonix to discuss the state of the project and plans for the future. Last week a subgroup met to discuss plans for beam commissioning to 3.5 … Continue reading

Posted in Experimental HEP News | 13 Comments

Physics of the Universe Summit

The New York Times today reports on a Physics of the Universe Summit held a week or so ago in LA. According to the Times, participants stayed at “a Hollywood hotel known long ago as the ‘Riot Hyatt,’ for the … Continue reading

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Various and Sundry

The latest New Scientist has an article about Erik Verlinde’s “entropic gravity”, with enthusiastic remarks from Robbert Dijkgraaf and Stanley Deser. Gerard ‘t Hooft expresses pleasure at seeing a string theorist talking about “real physical concepts like mass and force, … Continue reading

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Big Think

A little while ago I did an interview for Big Think, and they just put it up here today, with some editorial comment here. I really don’t like watching or listening to myself, so I’m not about to go through … Continue reading

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Particle Theory in Midtown

Particle theory is about to have a significantly higher profile in midtown Manhattan, with the launch of two new programs this spring: The CUNY Graduate Center at 34th St. is starting up an Initiative for the Theoretical Sciences, with a … Continue reading

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