Author Archives: woit

John Wheeler 1911-2008

Posted on April 14, 2008 by woit

News of the death of John Wheeler came yesterday, and many people have already written detailed, touching and informative pieces about the man, his life and scientific achievements. See for example here, here, and here. With Wheeler gone, physics loses … Continue reading →

Posted in Obituaries | 21 Comments

Dark Matter

Posted on April 13, 2008 by woit

Yesterday evening I went to see the new film Dark Matter, which opened here in New York this weekend. In many ways, it’s very good, much better than I was expecting. The plot is loosely based upon the story behind … Continue reading →

Posted in Film Reviews | 9 Comments

Physicists On Tape

Posted on April 12, 2008 by woit

Over at the Center for Science Writings, John Horgan has started an interesting project of posting copies of taped interviews with scientists that he has accumulated over the years, starting with an interview with Chandrashekar. In a blog entry about … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 4 Comments

The New Math

Posted on April 7, 2008 by woit

Via Steve Hsu, I ran across the cover article from Alpha magazine, a magazine for the hedge fund industry, entitled The New Math. It describes the role physicists are playing in several hedge funds, developing sophisticated trading strategies. One of … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 25 Comments

Stony Brook Dialogues in Mathematics and Physics

Posted on April 5, 2008 by woit

Last week I spent a day out at Stony Brook, attending the second day of a two-day symposium devoted to mathematics and physics, held in honor of C. N. Yang and Jim Simons. Peter Steinberg was there for the first … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 8 Comments

Short Items

Posted on April 4, 2008 by woit

The Tevatron has been performing well, producing record-high weekly luminosities. Fermilab director Oddone has announced that plans to shut-down the accelerator complex for yearly maintenance work are being canceled this year, instead the plan is to run the Tevatron straight … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 19 Comments

LHC Startup at 10 TeV

Posted on March 29, 2008 by woit

Robert Aymar, the Director General of CERN, has announced that the LHC will operate when it starts up this year at an energy of 5 TeV per beam (10 TeV total center of mass energy), rather than the design energy … Continue reading →

Posted in Experimental HEP News | 17 Comments

Krauss on Boltzmann Brains

Posted on March 27, 2008 by woit

Lawrence Krauss has a piece this week in New Scientist about the latest hot topic in theoretical physics, Boltzmann brains. It’s entitled String Theory’s Latest Folly, and starts off: THOMAS AQUINAS may never have actually wondered how many angels can … Continue reading →

Posted in Multiverse Mania | 18 Comments

Off-topic

Posted on March 27, 2008 by woit

I usually try hard to avoid writing here about anything not directly related to mathematics and physics, but on rare occasions I can’t resist. Many readers may want to skip this posting as unserious, but maybe some will find it … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 22 Comments

2008 Abel Prize

Posted on March 26, 2008 by woit

The winner of this year’s Abel prize, a prize of over $1 million set up back in 2001 to provide an equivalent of a Nobel prize in mathematics, is… Actually, I have no idea. If you know who it is, … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 21 Comments