Author Archives: woit

Two Cultures

Posted on August 22, 2013 by woit

There are two workshops going on this week that you can follow on video, getting a good idea of the latest discussions going on at two different ends of the spectrum of particle theory in the US today. At the … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 70 Comments

Belief in multiverse requires exceptional vision

Posted on August 14, 2013 by woit

Tom Siegfried at Science News has a new piece about how Belief in multiverse requires exceptional vision that starts off by accusing critics of multiverse mania of basically being ignoramuses who won’t accept the reality of anything they can’t see … Continue reading →

Posted in Multiverse Mania | 73 Comments

Quick Links

Posted on August 13, 2013 by woit

At HEP blogs you should be reading already, there’s Tommaso Dorigo on 5 sigma (with more promised to come), and Jester on the lack of a definite BSM energy scale. Jester puts his finger on the big problem facing HEP … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 9 Comments

Never Give Up

Posted on August 7, 2013 by woit

Alok Jha has a piece in the Guardian yesterday about the failure to find SUSY. His conclusion I think gets the current situation right: Or, as many physicists are now beginning to think, it could be that the venerable theory … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 60 Comments

The Next Machine

Posted on August 6, 2013 by woit

For the last week or so US HEP physicists have been meeting in Minneapolis to discuss plans for the future of  US HEP.  Some of the discussions can be seen by looking through the various slides available here.   A few … Continue reading →

Posted in Experimental HEP News | 21 Comments

Latest from the Stacks Project

Posted on July 30, 2013 by woit

My colleague Johan de Jong for the last few years has been working on an amazing mathematical endeavor he calls the “Stacks Project”. As boring 20th century technology, this is a work-in-progress document (now nearly 4000 pages), available here. But … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 12 Comments

Bankrupting Physics

Posted on July 28, 2013 by woit

I just spent a depressing and tedious few hours reading through Bankrupting Physics, an English translation of Alexander Unzicker’s 2010 Von Urknall zum Durchknall written in German. When I started reading the thing I wasn’t expecting much, but figured it … Continue reading →

Posted in Book Reviews | 34 Comments

Where are we heading?

Posted on July 23, 2013 by woit

Every summer the IAS in Princeton runs a program for graduate students and postdocs called “Prospects in Theoretical Physics”. It’s going on now, with this year’s topic LHC Physics. Much of the program is devoted to the important but complex … Continue reading →

Posted in Multiverse Mania | 52 Comments

News From All Over

Posted on July 20, 2013 by woit

I confess to mostly finding “philosophy of physics” arguments not very helpful for understanding anything, but for those who feel differently, some new things to look at are a Scientific American article Physicists Debate Whether the World is Made of … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 21 Comments

No Joking Matter

Posted on July 8, 2013 by woit

Back now from vacation, and while I was away several people sent me links to point out that string theory promoters definitely aren’t taking a vacation. Links here with a few quick comments, followed by something about the issue of … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 46 Comments