Author Archives: woit

Models.Behaving.Badly

Posted on November 14, 2011 by woit

Emanuel Derman has a fascinating new book out, Models.Behaving.Badly, which I’ve been intending to write about here for a while now. One of the problems that has kept delaying this is that every time I start to write something I … Continue reading →

Posted in Book Reviews | 12 Comments

Higgs Rumor Roundup

Posted on November 10, 2011 by woit

As far as I’ve been able to tell, there’s still nothing definitive one way or the other about the SM Higgs, as the experiments continue to analyze data from the now-finished 2011 pp run. Starting Monday is the HCP 2011 … Continue reading →

Posted in Experimental HEP News | 22 Comments

This Week’s Hype

Posted on November 7, 2011 by woit

A couple people have pointed me to an article at New Scientist that requires another edition of This Week’s Hype. According to Nuclear clock could steal atomic clock’s crown: Such clocks could shed light on string theory. The frequency of … Continue reading →

Posted in This Week's Hype | 4 Comments

Extortion

Posted on November 6, 2011 by woit

An explanation of something that readers of this and other related blogs may have run into recently: An ex-boyfriend of a close personal friend of mine has been posting here and elsewhere repulsive and delusional material about the two of … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off on Extortion

Interview With Sidney Coleman

Posted on November 4, 2011 by woit

Via Steve Hsu, at the AIP Center for History of Physics, there’s a transcript of an interview with Sidney Coleman from 1977. It’s provocative and amusing, like the man himself, as well as informative history. Go and read the whole … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 27 Comments

This Week’s Hype

Posted on November 3, 2011 by woit

Now that the LHC has turned out to be dud, producing no black holes or extra dimensions, the latest news is that physicists are planning a new machine, “to follow in the footsteps of the Large Hadron Collider”. This one … Continue reading →

Posted in This Week's Hype | 56 Comments

Solvay Update

Posted on November 3, 2011 by woit

With the Solvay Centenary conference now finished for over a week, some information has been posted about it on the Solvay Institute web-site, where you can see a group picture of the attendees on the main page. Lisa Randall’s comment … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 12 Comments

Recollections of Rudolf Haag

Posted on November 3, 2011 by woit

Thomas Love pointed me to a wonderful article from last year by Rudolf Haag. It’s more or less a short memoir of his scientific career, entitled Some people and some problems met in half a century of commitment to mathematical … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 10 Comments

Templeton Frontiers Program

Posted on October 28, 2011 by woit

The Perimeter Institute announced yesterday a new partnership with the Templeton Foundation, in the form of something to be called the Templeton Frontiers Program. The research areas to be supported are “quantum foundations and information, foundational questions in cosmology, and … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 28 Comments

11/11/11, Portal to Another Universe?

Posted on October 25, 2011 by woit

According to World News Forecast, 11:11am on 11/11/11 could, if Uri Geller is right, be a portal to another universe. This is from Geller’s web-page on the subject: String theory is said to be the theory of everything. It is … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 42 Comments