Author Archives: woit

The Multiverse, Evidence and Theology

Posted on February 11, 2014 by woit

Yes, this multiverse business is tedious, but since it is becoming mainstream physics, with colloquium talks here at Columbia devoted to it, and the Columbia University Press publishing books about it, seems to me that someone at Columbia should be … Continue reading →

Posted in Book Reviews, Multiverse Mania | 62 Comments

More Links, Interesting and Tedious

Posted on February 5, 2014 by woit

First some links to interesting things: There’s a fascinating interview with Deligne in the latest AMS Notices. Alexandre Grothendieck: A Mathematical Portrait includes some great expository pieces about the mathematics developed by Grothendieck. There’s also available Grothendieck’s own Esquisse Thématique, … Continue reading →

Posted in Multiverse Mania, Uncategorized | 44 Comments

The Perfect Wave

Posted on February 4, 2014 by woit

Sometimes when I have come across claims of exotic phenomena at the far-out edge of the field of BSM physics based on branes and string theory (like time travel, or brane-world explanations of the bad OPERA result), my initial reaction … Continue reading →

Posted in Book Reviews, Multiverse Mania | 23 Comments

The Perfect Theory

Posted on February 2, 2014 by woit

Cosmologist Pedro Ferreira has a new book about to come out, entitled The Perfect Theory. The author accurately describes the book as a “biography of general relativity”, and it’s quite a good one, of the short and breezy variety (as … Continue reading →

Posted in Book Reviews | 21 Comments

Quick Links

Posted on February 1, 2014 by woit

I’ve always thought more philosophers of science should be weighing in on the debate over “falsifiability” and the “demarcation problem” surrounding string theory and the multiverse (i.e. are these really science?). This is a complex and tricky subject that they … Continue reading →

Posted in Multiverse Mania | 17 Comments

Scientific Bookstores, RIP

Posted on January 29, 2014 by woit

A few days ago I tried to stop by the Barnes and Noble store here in New York at Fifth Ave. and 18th St., just to find that it had closed earlier this month. This was the first book store … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 56 Comments

The Principle

Posted on January 26, 2014 by woit

I just found out about a new film coming out this spring, which appears to exemplify exactly the dangers I was pointing to in my last posting. It’s entitled The Principle, and features physicists Michio Kaku, Lawrence Krauss and Max … Continue reading →

Posted in Film Reviews | 136 Comments

I am not now and never have been a creationist

Posted on January 26, 2014 by woit

Max Tegmark seems to have decided that my criticism here of the emptiness of ideas in his recent book is “similar to hate-mail I’ve been receiving from a Young-Earth Creationist”. Also, the fact that I have fans at a certain … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off on I am not now and never have been a creationist

Platonism CageMatch at MoMath

Posted on January 25, 2014 by woit

After spending two hours in the middle of the day hearing about unexpected uses of twistors to study particle scattering amplitudes, yesterday I went down to Manhattan’s relatively new Museum of Mathematics, which had scheduled a “Family Friday” event, featuring … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 28 Comments

The Amplituhedron and Twistors

Posted on January 25, 2014 by woit

Yesterday Nima Arkani-Hamed was here at Columbia, giving a theory seminar on the topic of the Amplituhedron, which is a characterization of the integration region in a calculation of scattering amplitudes by integrating over regions in the so-called positive Grassmannian. … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 5 Comments