Category Archives: Uncategorized

25 Years of Topological Quantum Field Theory

It occurred to me today that right about now is the time someone should have chosen as the date for a celebration of the 25th anniversary of the birth of the idea of “Topological Quantum Field Theory”, as well as … Continue reading

Posted in Favorite Old Posts, Uncategorized | 14 Comments

Latest from the Rumor Mill

There’s at least one thing about string theory that has changed dramatically since my book was written back in 2002 or so. At the time I accumulated various numbers showing the way hiring in particle theory at leading institutions in … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | 26 Comments

Igor Frenkel 60th Birthday Conference

This week Yale is hosting a conference on Perspectives in Representation Theory, in honor of Igor Frenkel’s 60th birthday. I’m planning to take the train up there and attend some of the talks tomorrow and Wednesday. Frenkel has been a … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment

Phenomenology 2012

This week at the University of Pittsburgh the Phenomenology 2012 Symposium has talks reviewing the current situation in particle physics phenomenology. Not much new, but there is one plenary talk on string phenomenology, Cumrun Vafa’s Stringy Predictions for Particle Physics. … Continue reading

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Half Hour to Midnight

Matt Strassler posts here about a recent panel discussion of phenomenologists talking about the implications of the latest results from the LHC. You can listen to the thing for yourself, and see what Matt has to say at his blog, … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | 51 Comments

Correction

A while ago I wrote here about a recent “conference of Nobel Laureates” convened by Jeffrey Epstein in the Virgin Islands. This was based upon stories in boston.com (Boston Globe) and marketwatch.com (Wall Street Journal), which were based upon this … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | 7 Comments

A Prediction About a Prediction

In the years leading up to the LHC, string phenomenologists were vocal about their hopes to use string theory to make predictions about what the LHC would see, despite a history of a quarter-century of failure on the prediction front. … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | 37 Comments

Something and Nothing

In the something of interest category, last week at Columbia there was a panel discussion held as part of the World Leader’s Forum, introduced by our president Lee Bollinger, on the topic What If We Find the Higgs Particle and … Continue reading

Posted in Multiverse Mania, Uncategorized | 34 Comments

Weinberg on the Crisis of Big Science

Steven Weinberg has a new article in The New York Review of Books on The Crisis of Big Science, which is based on a talk he gave this past January at the American Astronomical Society meeting in Austin (for some … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | 54 Comments

Spring in the Virgin Islands

One thing that a career in math or physics research can get you, courtesy of financial industry wealth, is a nice trip to the Virgin Islands. A couple current possibilities are: The Simons Foundation funds week-long Simons Symposia, at Caneel … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | 10 Comments