Author Archives: woit

More of the Same (Physics, Math and Unification)

Posted on July 29, 2021 by woit

I was going to just provide the following links with a some comments, but decided it would be a good idea to put them into what seems to me the larger context of where we are in fundamental physics and … Continue reading →

Posted in Euclidean Twistor Unification, Langlands | Comments Off on More of the Same (Physics, Math and Unification)

Steven Weinberg 1933-2021

Posted on July 24, 2021 by woit

I heard this morning the news that Steven Weinberg passed away yesterday at the age of 88.  He was arguably the dominant figure in theoretical particle physics during its period of great success from the late sixties to the early … Continue reading →

Posted in Obituaries | 18 Comments

The Problem of Quantization

Posted on July 12, 2021 by woit

I’ve been watching Witten’s ongoing talks about geometric Langlands mentioned here, and wanted to recommend to everyone, mathematician or physicist, the first of them, on The Problem of Quantization (pdf here, video here, the question session is very worthwhile). For … Continue reading →

Posted in Quantum Mechanics, Quantum Theory: The Book, Uncategorized | 11 Comments

Deterioration of the World’s Thinking About the Deepest Stringy Ideas

Posted on July 12, 2021 by woit

For quite a few years now, I’ve been mystified about what is going on in string theory, as the subject has become dominated by AdS/CFT inspired work which has nothing to do with either strings or any visible idea about … Continue reading →

Posted in Strings 2XXX | 9 Comments

Even More Langlands

Posted on July 6, 2021 by woit

Various news at least tangentially related to the Langlands program: Cambridge University Press this month is publishing a volume edited by Julia Mueller, entitled The Genesis of the Langlands Program. The chapters by various authors concentrate on Langlands himself and … Continue reading →

Posted in Langlands | 3 Comments

Strings 2021

Posted on June 21, 2021 by woit

Strings 2021 started today, program is available here. Since it’s online only, talks are much more accessible than usual (and since it’s free, over 2000 people have registered to in principle participate via Zoom). Talks are available for watching every … Continue reading →

Posted in Strings 2XXX | 34 Comments

Various Math Items

Posted on June 6, 2021 by woit

Some math-research items: Mura Yakerson has been doing a really wonderful series of interviews with mathematicians, available at her math-life balance web-page or Youtube channel. I’ve just started listening to some of them, including ones with Peter Scholze and Dustin … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 17 Comments

Non-empirical Physics

Posted on June 2, 2021 by woit

I haven’t been paying much attention in recent years to the philosophers of science studying “Non-empirical” or “Post-empirical” physics or theory confirmation. At various times I did write fairly extensively about this, see for instance here, here and here. By … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 27 Comments

The Evolution of the Physicist’s Picture of Nature

Posted on May 24, 2021 by woit

Reading this Nautilus article about Julian Barbour led me recently to something I don’t think I’ve ever read before, Dirac’s 1963 Scientific American article The Evolution of the Physicist’s Picture of Nature. There is a very famous quote from this … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 20 Comments

Some History

Posted on April 29, 2021 by woit

I’m heading out soon for a 10 day vacation in the Rocky Mountains, blogging likely to change from sparse to non-existent for the next couple weeks. I’ve come across the following things that people with an interest in the recent … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 5 Comments