Author Archives: woit

How to Win the Nobel Prize

Posted on September 12, 2011 by woit

I’m too busy to write much on the blog just this moment, and besides, there’s nothing of great interest I can think of that need’s writing about. So, I’ll take up commenter Shantanu’s suggestion and try and stir up a … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 57 Comments

Imagine There’s No God Particle

Posted on September 5, 2011 by woit

It’s easy if you try (as John Lennon would say). The LHC is back in business after a technical stop, getting ready to collide protons for the next couple months, perhaps reaching an integrated luminosity of about 5 inverse femtobarns. … Continue reading →

Posted in Favorite Old Posts, Uncategorized | 89 Comments

Knocking on Heaven’s Door

Posted on September 4, 2011 by woit

Lisa Randall’s new book is about to come out, it’s entitled Knocking on Heaven’s Door: How Physics and Scientific Thinking Illuminate the Universe and the Modern World. It turns out that it’s really two books in one, both of which … Continue reading →

Posted in Book Reviews | 14 Comments

LHC results put supersymmetry theory ‘on the spot’

Posted on August 28, 2011 by woit

The HEP theory community is atwitter over a BBC News story LHC results put supersymmetry theory ‘on the spot’ that reports from the Lepton-Photon 2011 conference in Mumbai, where more null results relevant to supersymmetry were reported. According to the … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 70 Comments

This Week’s Hype, Part III

Posted on August 25, 2011 by woit

Today’s Wisconsin State Journal covers the String Phenomenology 2011 conference going on in Madison this week, where, according to the organizers, about 100 scientists are discussing how to “test string theory”: The Madison conference is something of a milestone in … Continue reading →

Posted in This Week's Hype | 12 Comments

This Week’s Hype, Part II

Posted on August 21, 2011 by woit

String theory hype is still coming fast and furious, so much so that the latest edition of This Week’s Hype needs to be a double issue. Today we learn that Black holes and pulsars could reveal extra dimensions, solving that … Continue reading →

Posted in This Week's Hype | 7 Comments

Sunday Night Higgs?

Posted on August 18, 2011 by woit

Lepton-Photon 2011 begins Monday morning, the schedule is here. It should start off with a bang, with the latest Higgs search results from ATLAS and CMS presented starting at 11:20am local time, the middle of Sunday night here. There will … Continue reading →

Posted in Experimental HEP News | 45 Comments

String Theorists Suggest Space Wormholes Possible

Posted on August 18, 2011 by woit

I was just out for a bike ride, during which an idle thought came to me about a rule of thumb that might deserve publicity. This rule of thumb is that the mention of wormholes in a popular science book, … Continue reading →

Posted in This Week's Hype | 13 Comments

$100 Million From Simons and Simonyi for the IAS

Posted on August 18, 2011 by woit

The Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton announced today that Jim Simons and Charles Simonyi will donate \$100 million to the Institute, in the form of matching funds for a \$200 million campaign mainly aimed at increasing the endowment. For … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 9 Comments

Does String Theory Predict Low Energy Supersymmetry?

Posted on August 16, 2011 by woit

It used to be that string theorists would respond to arguments that string theory predicted nothing with the claim that it predicted supersymmetry. For example, in an interview with Witten done for the PBS Elegant Universe series, one sees: NOVA: … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 13 Comments