Author Archives: woit

What Graduate School in Theoretical Physics is Really Like

Posted on December 29, 2016 by woit

I’m about to head off for a short New Year’s vacation in West Texas, but wanted to recommend a wonderful article that just appeared at Nautilus. It’s a memoir by Bob Henderson (who I met when he wrote about me, … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 47 Comments

Various Links

Posted on December 15, 2016 by woit

A grab-bag of unrelated topics and links: Continuing the subject of budget cuts from the last posting, I heard today that the NSA is not funding this year the grant program that the AMS has been running for it, called … Continue reading →

Posted in Langlands, Multiverse Mania, Uncategorized | 29 Comments

HEP Theory Letter

Posted on December 8, 2016 by woit

A couple weeks ago a large group of US HEP theorists wrote a letter to the DOE High Energy Physics Advisory Panel (HEPAP) (available at page 7 here) expressing alarm at trends in DOE funding of HEP theory, ending with … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 28 Comments

Anomaly!

Posted on December 6, 2016 by woit

Tommaso Dorigo’s new book Anomaly! Collider Physics and the Quest for New Phenomena at Fermilab has just become available. I highly recommend it to anyone with an interest in high energy physics who wants some insight into how collider experiments … Continue reading →

Posted in Book Reviews | 5 Comments

Breakthrough Prizes 2017

Posted on December 4, 2016 by woit

The 2017 Breakthrough Prizes have just been announced, here are the winners and a few comments. Note that I’m leaving the usual singing of praise of the many virtues of the laureates to others, since there should soon be a … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 72 Comments

Various Links

Posted on November 22, 2016 by woit

A few pre-Thanksgiving items: International Journal of Modern Physics A has a new issue with “Featured Topic” part I of a discussion of the proposed Chinese supercollider project. The high profile contributions are from C. N. Yang, China should not … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 21 Comments

What Math Do You Need For Physics?

Posted on November 17, 2016 by woit

Chad Orzel has a very sensible piece at Forbes, headlined What Math Do You Need For Physics? It Depends, which addresses the question of what math a physicist like him (experimental AMO physics) really needs. I’m glad to see that … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 53 Comments

String theory might be about to finally be killed off

Posted on November 13, 2016 by woit

News site TechEye is reporting that String theory might be about to finally be killed off, with a story that starts off The world’s top boffins are debating finally killing off one of the more elegant scientific theories about the … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 23 Comments

Entanglement, the Multiverse and the Universe

Posted on November 10, 2016 by woit

“Entanglement” is the current buzzword of physics, here are two new stories featuring this: Back in 2013 one could read lots of claims in the media that “Hard evidence for the multiverse” had been found, based on “effects of quantum … Continue reading →

Posted in Multiverse Mania | 22 Comments

The Day After

Posted on November 9, 2016 by woit

The last few months have not been helpful for my sanity (and I think for that of a large number of other Americans). My three-point program to return to better mental health is to: Write one last blog post about … Continue reading →

Posted in Favorite Old Posts, Uncategorized | Comments Off on The Day After