Search Results for: multiverse

I’ve heard that you described Weinberg as “senile”. Is that true?

Posted on August 21, 2020 by woit

No, this is completely untrue. Here’s the actual story behind that, you can judge for yourself. In one of my early blog posts, (August, 2004, this one), I linked to a piece in Scientific American by Bousso and Polchinski promoting … Continue reading →

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This Week’s Hype

Posted on March 20, 2020 by woit

In this disturbing time of pandemic, it’s reassuring to see that some activities continue as usual. On the string theory hype front, yesterday NASA put out a press release announcing that Chandra Data Tests ‘Theory of Everything’, which starts by … Continue reading →

Posted in This Week's Hype | 3 Comments

This and That

Posted on December 2, 2019 by woit

First, a few physics items: Mark Alpert has a new novel out, Saint Joan of New York, a thriller subtitled “A Novel About God and String Theory”, which is an accurate description. It’s published by Springer, so you may be … Continue reading →

Posted in Book Reviews, Multiverse Mania, Uncategorized | 23 Comments

Various Links

Posted on November 12, 2019 by woit

Now back from a trip to the West Coast, here are some accumulated things that may be of interest: One thing I didn’t do while there was attend the 2020 Breakthrough Prize symposium. For videos of three talks about supergravity, … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 21 Comments

Various and Sundry

Posted on October 7, 2019 by woit

Various HEP-related links: The physics briefing book for the ongoing update to the European Strategy for Particle Physics is now available, for more see here. This describes the physics that one might hope to do with various proposed new machines. … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 6 Comments

Various and Sundry

Posted on September 26, 2019 by woit

A couple of mathematics items: Photographer Jessica Wynne has been taking photographs of mathematician’s blackboards, and there’s a story about this in the New York Times. Many of her photographs have been taken here at Columbia, where we happen to … Continue reading →

Posted in Swampland, Uncategorized | 19 Comments

The Number of the Heavens

Posted on September 18, 2019 by woit

Multiverse mania seems to have been dying down recently, with this only the third entry in that category here so far this year, after 10 in 2018, 13 in 2017, 10 in 2016, 17 in 2015, 18 in 2014, 12 … Continue reading →

Posted in Book Reviews, Multiverse Mania | 10 Comments

Something Deeply Hidden

Posted on August 20, 2019 by woit

Sean Carroll’s new (available in stores early September) book, Something Deeply Hidden, is a quite good introduction to issues in the understanding of quantum mechanics, unfortunately wrapped in a book cover and promotional campaign of utter nonsense. Most people won’t … Continue reading →

Posted in Book Reviews, Multiverse Mania, Quantum Mechanics | 76 Comments

Where We Are Now

Posted on August 6, 2019 by woit

For much of the last 25 years, a huge question hanging over the field of fundamental physics has been that of what judgement results from the LHC would provide about supersymmetry, which underpins the most popular speculative ideas in the … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 48 Comments

Prospects for contact of string theory with experiments

Posted on July 13, 2019 by woit

Nima Arkani-Hamed today gave a “vision talk” at Strings 2019, entitled Prospects for contact of string theory with experiments which essentially admitted there are no such prospects. He started by joking that he had been assigned this talk topic by … Continue reading →

Posted in Strings 2XXX | 20 Comments