Category Archives: Uncategorized

Change of Direction

Posted on April 1, 2011 by woit

It probably won’t surprise my regular readers to hear that recently I’ve been getting rather tired of the usual topics of this blog. String theory has been intellectually dead for a very long time now, and continuing to point this … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 22 Comments

Things That Deserve (but won’t get) Longer Blog Postings

Posted on March 23, 2011 by woit

Here’s a selection of news that deserves longer blog postings that, for one reason or another, I’m unable or unwilling to provide… This year’s Abel Prize goes to John Milnor. With an excellent blog posting about this from Fields Medalist … Continue reading →

Posted in Experimental HEP News, Langlands, Uncategorized | 9 Comments

Short Items

Posted on March 6, 2011 by woit

There’s a wonderful interview at the Notices with last year’s Abel Prize winner John Tate (video here). He blames the fact that his name is on so many mathematical results and concepts on Serge Lang. The 2011 Abel Prize winner … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 30 Comments

Space-time, Quantum Mechanics and the Large Hardon Collider

Posted on February 28, 2011 by woit

The title of the posting is that of Nima Arkani-Hamed’s public lecture last week at the IAS, with the spelling that of the title at the beginning of the video (available here, lower resolution version here). The bulk of the … Continue reading →

Posted in Favorite Old Posts, Uncategorized | 69 Comments

Budget News

Posted on February 14, 2011 by woit

Almost five months into FY 2011, the US still has no budget for the year, operating on a continuing resolution that funds the government at FY 2010 levels until March 4. The House Republicans have come up with a proposal … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 6 Comments

Celebrity News

Posted on February 8, 2011 by woit

A selection of celebrity math/physics news: Jane Fonda’s blog has a report on My Meeting With Stephen Hawking. Hawking told her “You were my heart throb”, admitting that Barbarella was what he had in mind. MIT has put online a … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 22 Comments

IAS 80th Anniversary Talks

Posted on February 3, 2011 by woit

This may be old news, but I just recently noticed that talks given at the IAS in Princeton last fall to celebrate its 80th anniversary are now available on-line here. They include talks by Voevodsky on the foundations of mathematics, … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 34 Comments

Number 999 or 1000

Posted on January 25, 2011 by woit

According to the WordPress software, this is either post 999 or 1000 on this blog, depending on whether you count one I haven’t gotten around to finishing. I’m not sure that number is reliable anyway, since there are various anomalies … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 23 Comments

News from Templeton and FQXi

Posted on January 18, 2011 by woit

The Templeton Foundation has just released their “2010 Capabilities Report“, a sort of bi-annual report. It shows that in 2009 they had assets of $1.5 billion, and spent $31.8 million on “Science and the Big Questions”. For 2010 two of … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 9 Comments

More Short Items

Posted on January 16, 2011 by woit

There’s an excellent article by Michel Berube about the Sokal hoax, fifteen years later, entitled The Science Wars Redux. The latest Notices of the AMS has a review of the recent Yau-Nadis book by Nigel Hitchin (for my take, see … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 14 Comments