Author Archives: woit

Two Items

Posted on February 14, 2024 by woit

If I’m going to point to something about string theory and say the same things as always about it, seems best to first start with the opposite, an item about something really worth reading. This spring I’ve been teaching a … Continue reading →

Posted in This Week's Hype | 14 Comments

Why physicists are rethinking the route to a theory of everything

Posted on February 7, 2024 by woit

New Scientist this week has a cover story I can strongly endorse, entitled Why physicists are rethinking the route to a theory of everything. It’s by journalist Michael Brooks, partly based on a long conversation we had a month or … Continue reading →

Posted in Euclidean Twistor Unification | 50 Comments

Arithmetic, Geometry and QFT news

Posted on February 5, 2024 by woit

This week at Harvard’s CMSA there’s a program on Arithmetic Quantum Field Theory that is starting up and will continue through March. There’s a series of introductory talks going on this week, by Minhyong Kim, Brian Williams, and David Ben-Zvi. … Continue reading →

Posted in Langlands | 10 Comments

This Week’s Hype

Posted on February 1, 2024 by woit

For the last thirty years or so, one tactic of those who refuse to admit the failure of string theory has been to go to the press with bogus claims of “we finally have found a way to get testable … Continue reading →

Posted in This Week's Hype | 31 Comments

Particle Physics Is Not In Crisis

Posted on January 20, 2024 by woit

For a low-rent version of the self-congratulatory program discussed here, Bad Boy of Science Sam Gregson has a new video up entitled Particle Physics Is Not In Crisis – but we can make improvements. Cliff Burgess plays the Strominger role, … Continue reading →

Posted in This Week's Hype | 31 Comments

Quick Links

Posted on January 20, 2024 by woit

A few quick links: There’s a one-day conference next Friday at the IHES, recognizing Dustin Clausen’s appointment to a new Jean-Pierre Bourguignon Chair. Should be several interesting talks, see here. There’s an ongoing conference at the KITP on the topic … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 13 Comments

Know Time Podcast

Posted on January 14, 2024 by woit

For another podcast/interview with me that was recently recorded, see Maths, Twistors & String Theory. Know Time is a series of podcasts that is a project of Shalaj Lawania, and I was impressed by the effort he put into trying … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off on Know Time Podcast

Spring Course

Posted on January 11, 2024 by woit

Starting next week I’ll be teaching a graduate topics course, with the general plan to develop much of the quantum field theory of the Standard Model in a form accessible to mathematicians, emphasizing the connections to representation theory. There’s a … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 5 Comments

String Theory Hype Fest

Posted on January 5, 2024 by woit

I just finished watching the video here, which was released today. Since this was advertised as a panel discussion on the state of string theory, I thought earlier today that it might be a good opportunity to write something serious … Continue reading →

Posted in This Week's Hype | 62 Comments

Recent Talk

Posted on December 9, 2023 by woit

I gave a “Spacetime is Right-handed” talk yesterday, part of a series entitled Octonions, standard model and unification. The slides are here, video should appear here. Much of the talk was devoted to explaining the usual relation between spinors and … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 8 Comments