Yearly Archives: 2006

Navier-Stokes Equation Progress?

Posted on October 5, 2006 by woit

Penny Smith, a mathematician at Lehigh University, has posted a paper on the arXiv that purports to solve one of the Clay Foundation Millenium problems, the one about the Navier-Stokes Equation. The paper is here, and Christina Sormani has set … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 176 Comments

Controversy, Controversy….

Posted on October 4, 2006 by woit

There’s almost too much to keep track of the last couple days on the string theory controversy front: Burton Richter of SLAC has a Reference Frame piece in the latest Physics Today entitled Theory in particle physics: Theological speculation versus … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 41 Comments

Falsifying String Theory: Not

Posted on October 1, 2006 by woit

Back in April a paper appeared on the arXiv from string theorist Jacques Distler and collaborators that made a rather outrageously overhyped claim to have found a way to “falsify string theory”. The paper was entitled Falsifying String Theory Through … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 29 Comments

The String Vacuum Project

Posted on September 30, 2006 by woit

Last week at the KITP, Keith Dienes gave a talk on A Statistical Study of the Heterotic Landscape. He gave a good idea of the state of the art of the investigation of the Landscape, focusing on one special type … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 43 Comments

This Week’s Hype

Posted on September 28, 2006 by woit

Fewer and fewer science writers these days are credulous enough to keep promoting string theory, but there still are some around willing to keep writing overhyped stories about how theorists have finally found a way to get some sort of … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 27 Comments

2006 Nobel Prize for Physics

Posted on September 26, 2006 by woit

No, I don’t have any idea who will win this year, but the announcement will be a week from today, on Tuesday October 3. After my initial success in Nobel Prize prognostication, I’ve now retired from that game, but encourage … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 76 Comments

Unstrung

Posted on September 25, 2006 by woit

This week’s New Yorker has an article about the controversy over string theory, written by Jim Holt, with the title Unstrung. On the web-site there’s also a link to Woody Allen’s 2003 humorous New Yorker piece on string theory, Strung … Continue reading →

Posted in Not Even Wrong: The Book | 72 Comments

Links and Gossip

Posted on September 22, 2006 by woit

Well, no, I’m not going to start putting up here the really interesting gossip that people tell me. If I did so they’d stop telling me such things. The Theoretical Particle Physics Jobs Rumor Mill has moved yet again. First … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 34 Comments

The Goldilocks Enigma

Posted on September 22, 2006 by woit

Paul Davies is an author of many popular science books, often dealing with topics in cosmology and particle physics. He has been based in Australia for the last sixteen years, but is now moving to the US, taking up a … Continue reading →

Posted in Book Reviews | 35 Comments

Some Links

Posted on September 19, 2006 by woit

John Baez is encouraging people to join in a campaign to “save New Scientist” from itself, i.e. to get them to stop publishing so much scientific nonsense. This seems to me like a worthwhile goal; maybe if they stop writing … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 103 Comments