Monthly Archives: April 2006

Yuval Ne’eman 1925-2006

Posted on April 27, 2006 by woit

Yuval Ne’eman died yesterday, from a brain hemorrhage caused by a recent fall. Science magazine has a story about this. Together with Murray Gell-Mann, in 1961 Ne’eman co-discovered the SU(3) classification of strongly interacting particles. At the time he was … Continue reading →

Posted in Obituaries | 13 Comments

Revealing the Hidden Nature of Space and Time

Posted on April 26, 2006 by woit

The EPP2010 report by the Committee on Elementary Particle Physics in the 21st Century is out today, and it is entitled Revealing the Hidden Nature of Space and Time. This committee was convened to recommend priorities for high energy physics … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 26 Comments

Dan Freed on Twisted K-theory and the Verlinde Algebra

Posted on April 26, 2006 by woit

Dan Freed recently gave the Andrejewski Lectures at the Max Planck Institute for Mathematics in the Sciences in Leipzig, and has put the slides from his first lecture on-line. These give a beautiful overview of his work with Hopkins and … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 8 Comments

The Hype Goes On

Posted on April 23, 2006 by woit

Yet another example of the seemingly infinite supply of bogus “evidence for string theory” is a recent Slashdot posting about a claim to have measured a change in time of the proton/electron mass ratio. It is based on a New … Continue reading →

Posted in This Week's Hype | 72 Comments

Witten Geometric Langlands Talk and Paper

Posted on April 22, 2006 by woit

I spent yesterday afternoon down in Princeton, and attended a talk by Witten at the Institute on his work relating gauge theory and the geometric Langlands program. He says that his paper with Kapustin is done, it’s about 220 pages … Continue reading →

Posted in Langlands | 105 Comments

Science Fantastic

Posted on April 20, 2006 by woit

Michio Kaku has joined the Talk Radio Network, where he will have a new radio show called “Science Fantastic” that will appear on 90 radio stations around the country. Topics that will be covered include “black holes, higher dimensions, string … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 30 Comments

Susskind Turns Down Templeton Prize

Posted on April 18, 2006 by woit

OK, maybe they haven’t offered it to him yet, but over at the Edge web-site, in a comment about John Horgan’s recent piece about the Templeton Foundation, Susskind writes: I don’t understand the idea that a convergence between science and … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 64 Comments

The Jasons

Posted on April 15, 2006 by woit

One of the less well-known parts of the history of particle physics is the involvement of many prominent theorists in research (often classified) conducted for the U.S. military through an organization known as “Jason”. My advisor at Princeton (Curt Callan) … Continue reading →

Posted in Book Reviews, Uncategorized | 21 Comments

Schroer Notes and Other Links

Posted on April 13, 2006 by woit

Bert Schroer has sent me some notes comparing the Lagrangian path integral and algebraic approaches to quantum field theory, which others may also find interesting. I have a very different perspective than he does, but have gone through the experience … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 36 Comments

Memorials

Posted on April 9, 2006 by woit

The May issue of the Notices of the AMS has memorial articles about two great mathematicians who passed away recently. The first is about Serge Lang and includes contributions from many people, including my Columbia colleague Dorian Goldfeld. When Lang … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 14 Comments