Category Archives: Uncategorized

Fundamental Physics Prize

Posted on July 31, 2012 by woit

String theory may not be doing so well in the popular press or among physicists, but at least a fabulously wealthy Russian investor is a fan. Yuri Milner recently deposited \$3 million each in the bank accounts of 5 string … Continue reading →

Posted in Favorite Old Posts, Uncategorized | 149 Comments

Short Items

Posted on July 26, 2012 by woit

A few short items: To compare and contrast to the activities of the Simons Foundation, there’s the Templeton Foundation, which has a $1.7 billion or so endowment to spend: They have a new Big Questions Online site, which asks Does … Continue reading →

Posted in Multiverse Mania, Uncategorized | 12 Comments

Simons Investigators

Posted on July 26, 2012 by woit

The Simons Foundation has announced the surprise selection of 7 mathematicians and 9 theoretical physicists as Simons Investigators. Those selected will get \$100,000/year for 5 years, renewable for another 5, their departments \$10,000/year, their institutions \$22,000/year. According to a Washington … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 6 Comments

Short Items, Higgs-free

Posted on July 7, 2012 by woit

The Simons Foundation has some more wonderful interviews with mathematicians. There’s one with Pierre Deligne, and another with Robert MacPherson. The MacPherson piece describes not just mathematics, but also the unusual personal and professional collaboration of MacPherson and his student … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 38 Comments

Court Judgement in Nature/El Naschie Case

Posted on July 7, 2012 by woit

Nature has finally won its court case against Mohamed El Naschie, see here. This was based on a 2008 Nature story by Quirin Schiermeier, which during the case was removed from the Net, but now is back up. The court … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 19 Comments

25 Years of Topological Quantum Field Theory

Posted on May 31, 2012 by woit

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

Posted on May 16, 2012 by woit

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

Posted on May 14, 2012 by woit

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

Posted on May 8, 2012 by woit

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 →

Posted in Uncategorized | 3 Comments

Half Hour to Midnight

Posted on May 5, 2012 by woit

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