Category Archives: Multiverse Mania

Multiverses: Science or Science Fiction?

The September issue of Astronomy magazine is now out, with a cover story on Multiverses: Science or Science Fiction? The author Bob Berman does a good job of explaining both the arguments for various Multiverses, as well as the reasons … Continue reading

Posted in Multiverse Mania | 59 Comments

This Week’s Hype

Symmetry, the FNAL/SLAC run online magazine funded by the DOE, today is running a piece of multiverse mania entitled Is this the only universe?. It’s a rather standard example of the pseudo-scientific hype that has flooded the popular scientific media … Continue reading

Posted in Multiverse Mania, This Week's Hype | 16 Comments

Multiversal Journeys

One of the many efforts to promote the Multiverse to the public way back when (2005-2007, some of their advertisements are here) was an organization called Multiversal Journeys. Back in 2006 they got $77,000 in funding from the Templeton Foundation … Continue reading

Posted in Multiverse Mania | 23 Comments

CMB@50

Last week Princeton hosted what seems to have been a fascinating conference, celebrating the 50th anniversary of studies of the CMB. Hopefully videos and slides will be posted, but one can get some idea of the highlights of the talks … Continue reading

Posted in Multiverse Mania | 15 Comments

A Crisis at the (Western) Edge of Physics

The New York Times had an op-ed piece this weekend by Adam Frank and Marcelo Gleiser, entitled A Crisis at the Edge of Physics. They make some of the usual criticisms of string theory and the multiverse, ending with Are … Continue reading

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About That Smoking Gun…

Aeon magazine has just published a long piece on the current state of cosmology by Ross Andersen. One focus is on Paul Steinhardt and his claims that the popular multiverse/eternal inflation scenario doesn’t explain what it is supposed to, and … Continue reading

Posted in Multiverse Mania | 33 Comments

Dreams of a Final (or Better) Theory

John Horgan has an interesting interview with Steven Weinberg here. Weinberg isn’t very optimistic about possible progress these days: Horgan: In 1995 you told me that it’s a “terrible time for particle physics.” Are you feeling any better about your … Continue reading

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News of the Multiverse

Just about ten years ago, my April 1 posting here was a fantasy about the Stanford ITP getting major funding from the Templeton Foundation, using it to fund a program on the multiverse, and renaming themselves the Stanford Templeton Research … Continue reading

Posted in Multiverse Mania | 35 Comments

Back from Break

Clouds cleared about 15 minutes too late at Torshavn in the Faroe Islands, so totality was behind a cloud, but still an impressive sight. And the Faroe Islands are quite a remarkable place to visit. Some recent news: The plan … Continue reading

Posted in Multiverse Mania | 33 Comments

Short Items, and a Quick Book Review

Peter Orland has a new blog, Ensnared in Vacuum, where he’s writing about some non-perturbative QFT questions. Physics Today this month has book reviews of two books about theology and the multiverse (one of which I wrote about here). There … Continue reading

Posted in Book Reviews, Multiverse Mania | 16 Comments