Author Archives: woit

Some Math/Physics Items

Posted on October 25, 2025 by woit

A few quick math/physics items (OK, mostly math…): Contributions to next year’s ICM have already been written up by many speakers, and posted on the arXiv. Try this link to find them. There’s a wonderful new result from Kevin Costello … Continue reading →

Posted in Langlands, Uncategorized | 7 Comments

Chen-Ning (Frank) Yang 1922-2025

Posted on October 19, 2025 by woit

Chen-Ning Yang (often known in the US as “Frank”) passed away in Beijing yesterday at the age of 103. He was the last of the great figures of 1950s high-energy particle physics still with us. His name is associated with … Continue reading →

Posted in Obituaries | 18 Comments

The Situation at Columbia XXXIV

Posted on October 17, 2025 by woit

I’m trying to not get distracted from finishing writing up notes on some new ideas about Wick rotation, but here’s some news from Vichy-on-Hudson. Jonathan Cole, who was provost from 1989 to 2003, has written an excellent letter to the … Continue reading →

Posted in The Situation at Columbia | 9 Comments

The Situation at Columbia XXXIII

Posted on September 21, 2025 by woit

The fall semester is now under way at Columbia, and in many ways things are normal: enrollments are as usual or higher, foreign students have mostly gotten visas and are on campus. There are some new things though which are … Continue reading →

Posted in The Situation at Columbia | 6 Comments

Two Number Theory Items (and Woody Allen)

Posted on September 20, 2025 by woit

James Douglas Boyd has recently spent a lot of time interacting with Mochizuki and others at RIMS working in anabelian geometry. Material from interviews he conducted are available here (Mochizuki on IUT) and here (on anabelian geometry at RIMS). He … Continue reading →

Posted in abc Conjecture, Uncategorized | 18 Comments

Epistemic Collapse at the WSJ

Posted on September 11, 2025 by woit

For a long time now fundamental theoretical physics has been suffering not just from a slowdown in progress, but from a sort of intellectual collapse (I wrote about this here a while back in the context of “epistemic collapse”: the … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 77 Comments

Bad Craziness

Posted on August 28, 2025 by woit

Given the ever more obvious case that genocide is going on in Gaza, I had been thinking that Scott Aaronson’s going quiet on the issue meant that he was starting to realize that this had become indefensible. Turns out I … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 90 Comments

The Situation at Columbia XXXII

Posted on August 25, 2025 by woit

Actually, nothing really new at Columbia. New students arriving, classes start next week. Still tight security at the gates and the administration’s highest priority is to continue to ensure that no “antisemitic” protest of the war crimes going on in … Continue reading →

Posted in The Situation at Columbia | 41 Comments

Pet Peeves

Posted on August 13, 2025 by woit

It’s getting hard to wake up every day, read the latest news of the slaughter of civilians in Gaza and the plans to finish off or exile the rest, then go through the two ID checks at the campus gate … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 47 Comments

The Situation at Columbia XXXI

Posted on August 1, 2025 by woit

Columbia’s new policies intended to stop and punish any on-campus criticism of the Gaza genocide by characterizing it as “antisemitism” have made it impossible for Rashid Khalidi to teach his planned fall course. See his explanation here, which ends with: … Continue reading →

Posted in The Situation at Columbia | 10 Comments