Author Archives: woit

The Edge of Physics

Posted on September 24, 2009 by woit

Nature this week has two stories about the Perimeter Institute. There’s a long one entitled The edge of physics, which emphasizes Perimeter’s wealth and success, starting off: Working at the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics comes with certain perquisites. Whenever … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 51 Comments

Media Commentary

Posted on September 24, 2009 by woit

Tonight will be the premiere of a new TV series called Flashforward, based on a novel with a plot that involves the Alice detector at CERN. CERN has put up a web-site about this, to reassure people that CERN isn’t … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 16 Comments

Characterising Science and Beyond

Posted on September 21, 2009 by woit

This week the Templeton Foundation is funding yet another conference on the Multiverse, this one is entitled Philosophy of Cosmology 2009: Characterising Science and Beyond. The conference is also celebrating the 70th birthday of Templeton Prize winner George Ellis. The … Continue reading →

Posted in Multiverse Mania | 29 Comments

Various and Sundry

Posted on September 16, 2009 by woit

General Relativity and Gravitation has a special issue on quantum gravity, available here. Some out-takes from photographs taken for the recent Forbes article are here. You can see what part of my office looks like… I haven’t regularly been following … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 24 Comments

The Holy Patron of String Theory and its Holy Grail

Posted on September 14, 2009 by woit

Science News is running a long interview with Murray Gell-Mann, who will be celebrating his 80th birthday tomorrow. Gell-Mann was arguably (Feynman is one who would argue..) the most influential figure in theoretical particle physics throughout the 1950s and 1960s. … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 17 Comments

Bloggingheads Diavlog With Craig Callender

Posted on September 13, 2009 by woit

There’s a new Bloggingheads Diavlog up today, where philosopher of science Craig Callender and I discuss the topic of Philosophy and the String Wars. Regular readers of the blog will just get to see me make the same points as … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 9 Comments

Latest From the LHC

Posted on September 11, 2009 by woit

Things seems to have been going well at the LHC recently, with the current schedule expecting injection of beams in a little more than two months from now, on Thursday November 19. After that, the plan is for a week … Continue reading →

Posted in Experimental HEP News | 9 Comments

Mathematicians: An Outer View of the Inner World

Posted on September 7, 2009 by woit

A friend recently loaned me a wonderful book, the recently published Mathematicians: An Outer View of the Inner World, which consists mainly of photographs of mathematicians by Mariana Cook, paired with a page of comments from the mathematician being photographed. … Continue reading →

Posted in Book Reviews | 10 Comments

String Theory Skeptic

Posted on September 2, 2009 by woit

The latest Forbes magazine has an article entitled String Theory Skeptic, which gives me a lot more credit for the problems of string theory than I deserve. The article as I just saw it online appears to have a minor … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 48 Comments

ICM 2010

Posted on August 27, 2009 by woit

The International Congress of Mathematicians is held every four years, and the next iteration, ICM 2010, will be held about a year from now, in Hyderabad, India. These are huge conferences, planned well in advance, with 1465 mathematicians already pre-registered. … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 35 Comments