Author Archives: woit

Physicists Finally Find a Way to Test Superstring Theory

Posted on December 15, 2010 by woit

More than ten years ago, the New York Times ran a story explaining that Physicists Finally Find a Way to Test Superstring Theory. At the time, the test was scheduled to start in 2005-6: In fact, it might be possible … Continue reading →

Posted in Experimental HEP News | 27 Comments

This Week’s Hype

Posted on December 11, 2010 by woit

This week’s contribution to the long tradition of universities issuing press releases hyping non-existent “experimental tests of string theory” by their employees is from Duke University, which advertises “String Theory in a Lab“. This is based on a paper that … Continue reading →

Posted in This Week's Hype | 30 Comments

Math Research Institute, Art, Politics, Transgressive Sex and Geometric Langlands

Posted on December 4, 2010 by woit

I learned from a colleague last night about recent events bringing together the topics of the title of this posting, something that one wouldn’t have thought was possible. Last Wednesday there was a showing in Berkeley of Edward Frenkel’s short … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 25 Comments

The BMO Financial Group Isaac Newton Chair in Theoretical Physics

Posted on November 29, 2010 by woit

I learned this morning from Matin Durrani’s blog that the Perimeter Institute has announced today the first of what they expect to be five very well-funded Perimeter Research Chairs in theoretical physics. The next four will be named after Maxwell, … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 15 Comments

Assorted News

Posted on November 18, 2010 by woit

HEPAP is meeting in Washington today, presentations available here. The idea of this regular meeting is for the US HEP community and the funding agencies to meet and plan for the future, something that’s not easily done in an environment … Continue reading →

Posted in Experimental HEP News, Uncategorized | 28 Comments

A Geometric Theory of Everything

Posted on November 17, 2010 by woit

The December issue of Scientific American is out, and it has an article by Garrett Lisi and Jim Weatherall about geometry and unification entitled A Geometric Theory of Everything. Much of the article is about the geometry of Lie groups, … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 110 Comments

The Anderson-Higgs Mechanism

Posted on November 13, 2010 by woit

One reason for this posting is that exchanges in the comment section of the previous one led me to look into some history, and I found some odd and possibly interesting facts I hadn’t previously known. So, part of this … Continue reading →

Posted in Favorite Old Posts, Uncategorized | 31 Comments

Massive

Posted on November 10, 2010 by woit

There’s a wonderful new book about particle physics that has just come out, Massive:The Missing Particle that Sparked the Greatest Hunt in Science, by Ian Sample, who is a science correspondent for the Guardian. The topic is the huge open … Continue reading →

Posted in Book Reviews | 29 Comments

This and That

Posted on November 9, 2010 by woit

There’s a new preprint here explaining the scientific case for running the Tevatron past 2011. A couple weeks ago the P5 subpanel came out with its report on the subject, generating news stories “Momentum builds for Tevatron extension” and “Panel … Continue reading →

Posted in Experimental HEP News, Langlands, Uncategorized | 10 Comments

Once Before Time

Posted on November 8, 2010 by woit

There’s a new popular book out this week entitled Once Before Time: a whole story of the universe, by Martin Bojowald, promoting his ideas about “Loop Quantum Cosmology”. It’s a translation of the original German edition, Zuruck vor den Urknall, … Continue reading →

Posted in Book Reviews | 25 Comments