Author Archives: woit

Dualities

Posted on December 19, 2014 by woit

There’s a very interesting new paper on the arXiv by Joe Polchinski, a survey article for Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics, entitled just Dualities. It’s an unusually lucid summary of the story of dualities in quantum field … Continue reading →

Posted in Multiverse Mania | 61 Comments

Quick Links

Posted on December 19, 2014 by woit

The Planck data release has been delayed yet again. December 22, is now off the table, the latest plan is “before the end of January 15”, see here. Some peeks at their results are in slides from the Ferrara conference, … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 5 Comments

Defend the Integrity of Physics

Posted on December 17, 2014 by woit

This week’s Nature features a call to arms from George Ellis and Joe Silk, entitled Scientific method: Defend the integrity of physics. I’m very glad to see well-known physicists highlighting the serious problem for the credibility of science raised by … Continue reading →

Posted in Multiverse Mania | 34 Comments

Weinberg on the Desert, Seiberg on QFT

Posted on December 9, 2014 by woit

Last week Steven Weinberg gave a Lee Historical Lecture at Harvard, entitled Glimpses of a World Within. There’s a report on the talk at the Harvard Gazette. In essence, Weinberg argues in the talk for an idea that first started … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 68 Comments

Very Short Items

Posted on December 9, 2014 by woit

Long-awaited results from the Planck experiment were unveiled last week, with a new model for how to do this: hold a conference with no videos, no slides released, no wifi in the lecture hall, and put out a press release … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 15 Comments

The Multiverse in a Nutshell

Posted on December 1, 2014 by woit

The Guardian has a podcast up today featuring Robert Trotta and David Wallace called The Multiverse in a Nutshell. It’s largely more of the usual uncritical multiverse hype that has been flooding the public expositions of fundamental physics for years … Continue reading →

Posted in Multiverse Mania | 29 Comments

For Your Viewing Pleasure

Posted on November 29, 2014 by woit

If you’ve already seen the various new math/physics films coming out of Hollywood, this week you might be interested in watching some of the real thing, including the following: The hot ticket this week will be Monday’s Planck session at … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 14 Comments

The Imitation Game

Posted on November 19, 2014 by woit

This season’s Hollywood math/physics extravaganza is starting to come to an end. For coverage of the Breakthrough Prize ceremony, I enthusiastically recommend Michael Harris’s new piece at Slate which just appeared. The final high profile production, one promoted at the … Continue reading →

Posted in Film Reviews | 24 Comments

Planck News?

Posted on November 19, 2014 by woit

The timing for release of long-awaited Planck polarization data keeps getting pushed back. At one point it was supposed to be earlier this year, most recently it was supposed to be this month, with that timing forced by a conference … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 7 Comments

Advertisements for the Multiverse

Posted on November 15, 2014 by woit

After watching the Breakthrough Prize awards tonight, tomorrow night on the Science Channel you can watch a program that actually features physicists rather than Hollywood/Silicon Valley celebrities. There’s an hour long infomercial for the Multiverse, entitled “Which Universe Are We … Continue reading →

Posted in Multiverse Mania, Uncategorized | 43 Comments