Category Archives: Uncategorized

Random Collection of Stuff

Pretty much everybody in the math community seems to be getting a blog. Many of the new bloggers are quite good research mathematicians (including even some Fields Medalists). Two very new ones are: Secret Blogging Seminar: Named after a “Secret … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | 34 Comments

US Particle Physics Planning

Last week both SLAC and Fermilab hosted “Users Meetings”, providing a forum to discuss the current status and future plans of the two laboratories. The SLAC agenda is here, and talks from previous years are available here, with this year’s … Continue reading

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Dispute Chez Les Physiciens

Yesterday evening there was a public debate about string theory held in Paris, between Lee Smolin and Thibault Damour. So far, accounts of the debate have appeared in Le Monde and at Fabien Besnard’s blog Mathephysique. The Le Monde article … Continue reading

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Imposter String Theorist at Stanford

In recent years many people in the particle theory community have been wondering what’s going on with the Stanford theory group, as it has become dominated by work on things like the anthropic landscape. It turns out that, for a … Continue reading

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All Landscape, All the Time

There seems to be a peculiar trend going on in the particle theory community. Just about all theorists I talk to, correspond with, argue with on blogs, etc. claim to be quite unhappy with the Landscape, and insist that most … Continue reading

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Even More Stuff Than Usual

Here are various things of interest that accumulated while I was away: Last week there was a conference in Florence on the early history of string theory, some of the talks are available here. Lots of blogging activity among Fields … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | 33 Comments

The Empire Strikes Back

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

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This Week’s Hype

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

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All LHC, all the Time

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

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New Blogs and Other Stuff

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

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