Author Archives: woit

Final Draft Version

Posted on October 24, 2016 by woit

I finally have finished a draft version of the book that I’ve been working on for the past four years or so. This version will remain freely available on my website here. The plan is to get professional illustrations done … Continue reading →

Posted in Quantum Theory: The Book | 31 Comments

A New 30 GeV Particle?

Posted on October 21, 2016 by woit

Last night a preprint appeared on the arXiv, with a re-analysis of old 1992-5 LEP data, looking at the dimuon spectrum for b-tagged (identified as involving a b-quark) events. An excess around 30 GeV was found, which would indicate a … Continue reading →

Posted in Experimental HEP News | 25 Comments

Math Items

Posted on October 17, 2016 by woit

A few mathematics items: David Ben-Zvi’s overview talk about Representation Theory as Gauge Theory given last month at the Clay conference in Oxford that I attended is now available online, as slides and video. Other talks from the conference are … Continue reading →

Posted in Langlands, Uncategorized | 23 Comments

YITP at 50

Posted on October 11, 2016 by woit

The past couple days the YITP at Stony Brook has been celebrating its 50th birthday. It was started back in 1966 by C. N. Yang and has been an active center for theoretical physics ever since. The ITP at Stony … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 38 Comments

Retraction at Annals of Physics

Posted on October 8, 2016 by woit

Retraction Watch reports that Annals of Physics has removed a recently published article by Joy Christian, replacing it by a publisher’s note that just says: “This article was erroneously included in this issue. We apologize for any inconvenience this may … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off on Retraction at Annals of Physics

Back

Posted on October 4, 2016 by woit

Now back from traveling, regular blogging will resume. Here are a few items: I was going to write something yesterday, explaining that this year’s physics Nobel would surely go to the LIGO trio who have gotten every other major physics … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 20 Comments

Still Not Even Wrong

Posted on September 24, 2016 by woit

A while back Tushna Commissariat of Physics World came to talk with me at Columbia, partly to discuss the topic of “Not Even Wrong, ten years later”, and that has now been turned into a podcast available as Still Not … Continue reading →

Posted in Not Even Wrong: The Book | 11 Comments

Heidelberg Laureate Forum

Posted on September 19, 2016 by woit

This week I’m in Heidelberg, attending the Heidelberg Laureate Forum, where I’ll be writing some blog posts for their website (which should appear here). You can follow talks on their website, either in real-time as streaming video, or by watching … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off on Heidelberg Laureate Forum

This Week’s Hype

Posted on September 15, 2016 by woit

Quanta Magazine has over the past couple years been establishing a well-deserved reputation as the smartest and best science journalism around. At the opposite extreme, over many years of interacting with science journalists, the most embarrassingly incompetent one I’ve run … Continue reading →

Posted in This Week's Hype | 25 Comments

Fashion, Faith, and Fantasy

Posted on September 12, 2016 by woit

Roger Penrose’s Fashion, Faith and Fantasy in the New Physics of the Universe is finally being published this week. This is a bit of a landmark event, since the book has a long history, going back to a series of … Continue reading →

Posted in Book Reviews | 34 Comments