Author Archives: woit

Before the Big Bang: The Origin of the Universe from the Multiverse

Posted on July 29, 2022 by woit

There’s a new book out this month, Before the Big Bang: The Origin of the Universe from the Multiverse, about which we’re told: One of the world’s most celebrated cosmologists presents her breakthrough explanation of our origins in the multiverse. … Continue reading →

Posted in Book Reviews, Multiverse Mania | 17 Comments

Strings Black Holes 2022

Posted on July 14, 2022 by woit

Each summer for nearly a quarter-century there has been a big yearly conference bringing together the string theory community. I’ve often written about these conferences on the blog, see here. This year’s version will be held next week in Vienna, … Continue reading →

Posted in Strings 2XXX | 31 Comments

ICM 2022

Posted on July 3, 2022 by woit

The 2022 ICM is starting soon, in a virtual version organized after the cancellation of the original version supposed to be hosted in St. Petersburg (for how that happened, see here). The IMU General Assembly is now going on, moved … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 18 Comments

In a Parallel Universe, Another You

Posted on June 21, 2022 by woit

From today’s New York Times, Michio Kaku explains: In physics, the concept of a multiverse is a key element of a leading area of study based on the theory of everything. It’s called string theory, which is the focus of … Continue reading →

Posted in Multiverse Mania, Uncategorized | 28 Comments

All Langlands All the Time

Posted on June 12, 2022 by woit

I’m about to head to Paris on vacation, quite possibly there will be less blogging for the next couple of weeks. Here are a few Langlands-related items: The big Langlands-related event of the summer will be the July IHES Summer … Continue reading →

Posted in Langlands, Uncategorized | 3 Comments

Physicists Discover Never-Before Seen Particle Sitting On a Tabletop

Posted on June 9, 2022 by woit

I woke up this morning to find out that a new Higgs particle which could explain dark matter has been discovered, in a table-top experiment at Boston College. For some of the news stories about this, see here and here. … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 19 Comments

Memories of a Theoretical Physicist

Posted on June 1, 2022 by woit

Joe Polchinski’s autobiographical Memories of a Theoretical Physicist has just been published, in an open-access version that is freely available. Much of the volume is what appeared here on the arXiv back in 2017, but this has been supplemented with … Continue reading →

Posted in Book Reviews | 20 Comments

This and That

Posted on May 25, 2022 by woit

Various things that may be of interest: MSRI in Berkeley has announced a \$70 million dollar gift from Jim and Marilyn Simons, and Henry and Marsha Laufer. This gift will make up the bulk of a planned endowment increase of … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 22 Comments

Two Titans

Posted on May 10, 2022 by woit

If one tried to pick a single most talented and influential figure of the past 100 years in each of the fields of pure mathematics and of theoretical physics, I’d argue that you should pick Alexander Grothendieck in pure math … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 51 Comments

Brian Conrad on the California Mathematics Framework

Posted on May 5, 2022 by woit

Brian Conrad has been doing the state of California a great service by taking a careful look at the drafts of the proposed California Mathematics Framework and the research they are supposedly based on.   He has recently created a website … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 9 Comments