Monthly Archives: April 2004

What Is Thought?

Posted on April 30, 2004 by woit

Eric Baum was a fellow physics student both at Harvard and Princeton, completing his Ph.D. in the early 1980s on a topic in quantum gravity. During his years as a physics postdoc he came up with an argument for why … Continue reading →

Posted in Book Reviews | 4 Comments

The Fundamental Lemma

Posted on April 27, 2004 by woit

For quite a few years now, when I ask my colleague Herve Jacquet about what is going on in his field, he tells me something like: “Maybe someone will soon be able to prove the Fundamental Lemma”. This is a … Continue reading →

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The Good Old Days

Posted on April 26, 2004 by woit

Alvaro de Rujula has posted on the arXiv under the title “Fifty years of Yang-Mills Theories: a phenomenological point of view” some of his recollections from the mid-seventies. These bring back my own memories of taking a course on particle … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 9 Comments

Rumors Available Again

Posted on April 23, 2004 by woit

The Theoretical Particle Physics Jobs Rumor Mill has a new home. It’s no longer at the University of Washington, now it’s at the College of William and Mary Physics department. Now that it’s available again, the Rumor Mill has the … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 10 Comments

HEPAP

Posted on April 22, 2004 by woit

HEPAP is the Department of Energy’s “High Energy Physics Advisory Panel”, which holds meetings 3-4 times a year. At these meetings, people from the DOE and NSF report on the latest news about US government funding for particle physcs, and … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments

Censorship

Posted on April 16, 2004 by woit

It seems that the second most important web-site in the particle theory community (the first is obviously the

Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments

Are Fermion Masses Like Planetary Orbits?

Posted on April 14, 2004 by woit

A more and more common argument one hears from string theorists these days (for one version see a recent anonymous comment posted here) goes more or less like this: “A fundamental theory shouldn’t be expected to predict things like fermion … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 13 Comments

A Hole in Texas

Posted on April 12, 2004 by woit

A short book review. This past weekend my scientific activities included reading Herman Wouk’s new novel “A Hole in Texas”. The plot revolves around the story of the cancellation of the SSC and a supposed discovery of the Higgs Boson … Continue reading →

Posted in Book Reviews | 7 Comments

KKLT Smackdown

Posted on April 7, 2004 by woit

I was dubious of the value of a new “sci.physics.strings” newsgroup when it was first proposed, but now must admit it seems to have been a great idea It started up a week or two ago, and quickly someone asked … Continue reading →

Posted in Favorite Old Posts, Multiverse Mania | 8 Comments

Young String Theorist Did OK On His Final

Posted on April 5, 2004 by woit

A while back when looking for theoretical physics related weblogs I ran across The Search For A Theory of Myself: The Struggle Against String Theory which at first sounded right up my alley. It turns out to be the weblog … Continue reading →

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