Category Archives: This Week’s Hype

This Week’s Hype

Posted on July 18, 2023 by woit

Nanopoulos and co-authors have predictions from superstring theory that are “in strong agreement with NANOGrav data.” He has been at this now for almost 40 years. See for instance Experimental Predictions from the Superstring from 1985, where the superstring predicted … Continue reading →

Posted in This Week's Hype | 11 Comments

Physicists Prove That Parallel Worlds Cannot Be Extremely Different From Each Other

Posted on July 3, 2023 by woit

Stories about the latest prediction of superstring theory here and here, based on a Tsukuba University press release about this paper. Generally ignoring this kind of nonsense these days, but the new feature of this one is that the press … Continue reading →

Posted in This Week's Hype | 4 Comments

Quantum Supremacy

Posted on May 3, 2023 by woit

We’re hearing this week from two very different parts of the string theory community that quantum supremacy (quantum computers doing better than classical computers) is the answer to the challenges the subject has faced. New Scientist has an article Quantum … Continue reading →

Posted in Book Reviews, This Week's Hype, Wormhole Publicity Stunts | 29 Comments

This Week’s Hype

Posted on April 26, 2023 by woit

According to this article, string theory is going to be tested using quantum computers, by doing a lattice QCD calculation: The way string theory is tested involves ‘lattice quantum chromodynamics’: a calculation problem far beyond what digital computers can achieve. … Continue reading →

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This Week’s Hype

Posted on January 24, 2023 by woit

The New York Times today has Where is Physics Headed (and How Soon Do We Get There?). It’s an interview by Dennis Overbye of Maria Spiropulu and Michael Turner, the chairs of the NAS Committee on Elementary Particle Physics – … Continue reading →

Posted in This Week's Hype | 12 Comments

Publicity Stunt Fallout

Posted on December 6, 2022 by woit

Latest news this evening from Scott Aaronson at the IAS in Princeton: Tonight, David Nirenberg, Director of the IAS and a medieval historian, gave an after-dinner speech to our workshop, centered around how auspicious it was that the workshop was … Continue reading →

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The Wormhole Publicity Stunt

Posted on December 3, 2022 by woit

The best way to understand the “physicists create wormholes in the lab” nonsense of the past few days is as a publicity stunt (I should credit Andreas Karch for the idea to describe things this way), one that went too … Continue reading →

Posted in This Week's Hype, Wormhole Publicity Stunts | 59 Comments

This Week’s Hype

Posted on November 30, 2022 by woit

This morning Quanta Magazine informs us that Physicists Create a Wormhole Using a Quantum Computer, promoting the article on Twitter with BREAKING: Physicists have built a wormhole and successfully sent information from one end to the other and Physicists have … Continue reading →

Posted in This Week's Hype, Wormhole Publicity Stunts | 37 Comments

This Week’s Hype

Posted on October 31, 2022 by woit

CERN on Wednesday is hosting a colloquium talk by Joseph Lykken, who supposedly will discuss Prospects for experimental quantum gravity. There’s by now a long tradition of string theorists dealing with criticism that their research program is inherently immune from … Continue reading →

Posted in This Week's Hype, Wormhole Publicity Stunts | 11 Comments

This Week’s Hype

Posted on October 5, 2022 by woit

The hype campaign marches on, just three very recent examples: Can stringy physics rescue the universe from a catastrophic transformation? Cosmic strings’ greatest power? Their ability to confound physicists. TF1 Snowmass Report: Quantum gravity, string theory, and black holes

Posted in This Week's Hype | 56 Comments