Yearly Archives: 2004

Witten Colloquium

Posted on October 21, 2004 by woit

I was down in Princeton today and went to hear Witten’s physics department colloquium on the topic of “Supersymmetry: Pro or Con”. He spent most of the hour going over the 25 year-old hierarchy argument for supersymmetry (that supersymmetry provides … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 27 Comments

Grothendieck and Motives

Posted on October 19, 2004 by woit

The latest issue of the Notices of the AMS contains several things very much worth reading. There’s the second part of a wonderful biographical article about Grothendieck written by Allyn Jackson (for some comments about the first part, see an … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 5 Comments

Interview with Atiyah and Singer

Posted on October 17, 2004 by woit

There’s a fascinating interview with Atiyah and Singer now on-line. It was conducted in May at the time they were awarded the Abel prize. The interview and Atiyah and Singer’s acceptance speeches are also available in video form. The whole … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 14 Comments

Sean Carroll on the Landscape

Posted on October 15, 2004 by woit

Over at Preposterous Universe Sean Carroll has some comments on the anthropic principle and the landscape. He describes one extreme of the spectrum of opinion about this as people who think the whole thing is completely non-scientific, giving what he … Continue reading →

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Hidenaga Yamagishi

Posted on October 13, 2004 by woit

A special issue of Physics Reports has appeared entitled “Hidenaga Yamagishi’s World”. Unfortunately it’s only available online if you are paying Elsevier, so I won’t post a link (it’s volume 398, issue 4-6). This issue is a memorial to the … Continue reading →

Posted in Obituaries | 3 Comments

Witten replaces WMAP

Posted on October 11, 2004 by woit

Witten is giving a colloquium talk next week at Princeton on the topic of “Supersymmetry Pro or Con”. His talk is a last-minute replacement for one about “Recent Results from WMAP” by Lyman Page. WMAP was supposed to report the … Continue reading →

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Wilczek Weblogs

Posted on October 10, 2004 by woit

This weblog thing is getting out of control. It seems that Frank Wilczek’s wife has one, as well as his daughter. What about you, Frank?

Posted in Uncategorized | 14 Comments

Witten on “The Future of String Theory”

Posted on October 9, 2004 by woit

Witten’s talk this morning at the KITP on “The Future of String Theory” is now available. He only talked for about fifteen minutes and then took some questions. I thought it was a rather weird performance. Not only did Witten … Continue reading →

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KITP Conference on “The Future of Physics”

Posted on October 8, 2004 by woit

The KITP in Santa Barbara is having a conference in honor of its 25th anniversary on the topic of “The Future of Physics”. Some of yesterday’s talks are already online. I’ve been watching Weinberg’s talk on “Where do we Stand?” … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 49 Comments

Gloating

Posted on October 5, 2004 by woit

Well, my prediction of who would win this year’s Nobel prize in physics turned out to be correct. No, I didn’t have any inside information about this at all. I suppose I should mention that many of my friends will … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 19 Comments