Author Archives: woit

The Empire Strikes Back

Posted on May 25, 2007 by woit

After last month’s posting at Cosmic Variance about how String Theory is Losing the Public Debate, Sean Carroll seems to have decided to go on the offensive (or defensive…), with a piece in New Scientist entitled String theory: it’s not … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 129 Comments

This Week’s Hype

Posted on May 24, 2007 by woit

Still traveling, but will be back soon. This week’s bogus “test of string theory” is described in a NASA press release about three satellite-based experiments that would look for violations of the equivalence principle. From the press release: …it [a … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 33 Comments

All LHC, all the Time

Posted on May 15, 2007 by woit

The LHC media blitz is in full swing, with last week’s long New Yorker article now followed by an unusually long and detailed New York Times piece titled A Giant Takes On Physics’ Biggest Questions. Dennis Overbye does an excellent … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 71 Comments

New Blogs and Other Stuff

Posted on May 12, 2007 by woit

Here’s a few new blogs I’ve run across recently: The FQXi organization now has a blog called FQXi Community. Rantings of an Angry Physicist is not another Not Even Wrong, but an interesting blog so far devoted to explaining what … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 19 Comments

Crash Course

Posted on May 7, 2007 by woit

This week’s New Yorker has a quite good article on the LHC and the state of particle physics with the title Crash Course. One of the main themes of the article is that of the rivalry between experimentalists and theorists. … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 21 Comments

Witten on 2+1 Dimensional Gravity

Posted on May 6, 2007 by woit

The high point of Friday’s string cosmology workshop here in New York was Witten’s lecture on his new ideas about 2+1 dimensional quantum gravity. I’ll try and reproduce here what I understood from the lecture, but this (2+1 d quantum … Continue reading →

Posted in Favorite Old Posts, Uncategorized | 29 Comments

All Sorts of Stuff

Posted on May 5, 2007 by woit

For up-to-the-minute news about the Higgs, far better informed than any media source could ever be (and thus a great example of why blogs are changing the way the media works), your best bet is Tommaso Dorigo’s blog. His latest … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 9 Comments

Princeton Physicists Connect String Theory With Established Physics

Posted on May 2, 2007 by woit

The latest press release hyping a string theory paper in a misleading way comes from my alma mater Princeton, which I find quite depressing. According to yesterday’s press release, entitled Princeton physicists connect string theory with established physics: String theory, … Continue reading →

Posted in This Week's Hype | 29 Comments

Three String Theory Textbooks

Posted on May 2, 2007 by woit

Until very recently, someone who wanted to begin studying string theory seriously had really only three possible textbooks available: Superstring Theory (1987), by Green, Schwarz and Witten. This is a two-volume, massive 1000 page treatment of the quantization of the … Continue reading →

Posted in Book Reviews | 20 Comments

Various Events and Other News

Posted on April 29, 2007 by woit

Upcoming events in and around New York, including several I’m planning to attend: The New York Academy of Sciences is having an evening of lectures this Wednesday, hosted by Frank Wilczek, on the topic of Expanding Frontiers of Physics and … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 57 Comments