Author Archives: woit

Completely Off-Topic

Posted on February 12, 2010 by woit

I’m heading off to New Orleans tomorrow morning, will be there for Mardi Gras, back next Wednesday. Light to no blogging for the duration. Since I’m already off-topic, I can’t resist promoting my friend Alexei Karamazov (aka Mark Ettinger)’s show, … Continue reading →

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String Theory for Undergraduates at Brown

Posted on February 11, 2010 by woit

A few years ago various US universities decided it was a good idea to offer a course on string theory for undergraduates (see here), but in recent years most of these seem to have been dropped from the curriculum. Brown … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 48 Comments

LHC Update

Posted on February 11, 2010 by woit

A new schedule for operation of the LHC is out. It has sector tests of injection into the LHC starting the evening of Feb. 17, circulating beams again around Feb. 22, about 6 weeks for beam commissioning, then physics starting … Continue reading →

Posted in Experimental HEP News | 3 Comments

Expanding Crackpottery

Posted on February 9, 2010 by woit

Lubos Motl is getting rather concerned (yes, I know about what pops up when I link to his blog…) about recent trends in theoretical physics, especially the implications of recent work (discussed here) of well-known string theorist Erik Verlinde. He … Continue reading →

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Various and Sundry

Posted on February 6, 2010 by woit

Now that the plan for running the LHC over the next few years is in place, one can start to get an idea of what new physics might emerge from it between now and 2013. For the question of the … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 14 Comments

Particle Theory Job Market

Posted on January 29, 2010 by woit

Erich Poppitz has updated his statistics on the high energy theory job market to include data from 2009. He counts hirings to tenure-track faculty jobs, using data from the Theoretical Particle Physics Jobs Rumor Mill. For 2009, out of 12 … Continue reading →

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LHC Update, More

Posted on January 29, 2010 by woit

According to John Conway, the decision coming out of Chamonix is to go with the first of the two scenarios described here: stay at 3.5 TeV/beam, then a long shutdown to fix all the splices. The idea is to run … Continue reading →

Posted in Experimental HEP News | 5 Comments

Are There Cosmic Microwave Anomalies?

Posted on January 28, 2010 by woit

No. The WMAP team has just released a new set of papers based upon seven years of data from their experiment. For a summary of how this new data has sharpened some of their previous results, see the Cosmological Interpretation … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 13 Comments

LHC Update

Posted on January 27, 2010 by woit

Those responsible for the LHC machine are having their yearly meeting this week in Chamonix to discuss the state of the project and plans for the future. Last week a subgroup met to discuss plans for beam commissioning to 3.5 … Continue reading →

Posted in Experimental HEP News | 13 Comments

Physics of the Universe Summit

Posted on January 26, 2010 by woit

The New York Times today reports on a Physics of the Universe Summit held a week or so ago in LA. According to the Times, participants stayed at “a Hollywood hotel known long ago as the ‘Riot Hyatt,’ for the … Continue reading →

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