Author Archives: woit

Various and Sundry

Posted on April 13, 2016 by woit

Some quick links: Via my Columbia colleague at Mathematics Without Apologies, a documentary about Perelman that I was unaware of. I learned something yesterday about another math department colleague, Mikhail Khovanov: he has games called Ringsanity and Ringiana available as … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 8 Comments

Starshot

Posted on April 12, 2016 by woit

I don’t know what this is about, but Stephen Hawking and Yuri Milner are here in New York today, with a press conference downtown scheduled at noon, supposedly to announce a mysterious new space exploration initiative, to be called Starshot. … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 37 Comments

Local Debates

Posted on April 4, 2016 by woit

I noticed that tomorrow (Tuesday, April 5) evening here in New York City there will be not one, but two debates involving theoretical physicists: At 7 pm the American Museum of Natural History will host the 2016 Asimov Debate, with … Continue reading →

Posted in Multiverse Mania | 66 Comments

Is String Theory Scientific?

Posted on April 1, 2016 by woit

Among the various April Fool’s things on the web, the most subtle one I’ve found is by the people at James Madison University, who are advertising an April 1 event discussing the question of Is String Theory Scientific? Part of … Continue reading →

Posted in Multiverse Mania, Uncategorized | 6 Comments

Short Items

Posted on March 30, 2016 by woit

A few short items: Beams are back in the LHC. You can follow what is going on here real-time, or here for details of this year’s beam commissioning. Physics runs scheduled to start last week of April. There’s a wonderful … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 9 Comments

Two Book Reviews

Posted on March 28, 2016 by woit

Blogging has been light here, trying to finish a complete draft of the book I’m working on, this should be done very soon. Here are a couple all-too-short reviews of books with some relation to math or physics. A Doubter’s … Continue reading →

Posted in Book Reviews | 8 Comments

Number Theory News

Posted on March 16, 2016 by woit

Andrew Wiles is the recipient of this year’s Abel Prize. I have to confess that I found this surprising, since I assumed he’d already won this. His work in general and specifically the work that led to the proof of … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 20 Comments

The Ultimate Simplicity of Everything

Posted on March 14, 2016 by woit

There’s a wonderful interview with Perimeter Institute director Neil Turok here, entitled The Ultimate Simplicity of Everything, and done for a Canadian radio program. Turok discusses his point of view on whether we’re at “the end of physics”, and I’m … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 10 Comments

This and That

Posted on March 9, 2016 by woit

A few short items: Nature has an editorial this week summarizing the situation with the 750 GeV possible diphoton bump. It mentions a new paper analyzing related data (the number of theory papers on this as a function of time). … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 7 Comments

Multiverse Observed, South of Glasgow

Posted on March 4, 2016 by woit

It turns out the multiverse does exist, just off the A76, 25 miles north of Dumfries in Scotland. It’s called the Crawick Multiverse and is now open 10 am to 4 pm. Admission is 5 pounds, but parking is free. … Continue reading →

Posted in Multiverse Mania | 18 Comments