Monthly Archives: August 2008

Yau Birthday Conference

Posted on August 30, 2008 by woit

There’s a conference at Harvard this week celebrating (somewhat early) the 60th birthday of the geometer Shing-Tung Yau. Since I was passing through Cambridge on the way back from a short vacation, I managed to catch a few of the … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 22 Comments

Boltzmann Brain Domination

Posted on August 30, 2008 by woit

A burning question in theoretical physics these days is that of whether Boltzmann Brains dominate the string theory anthropic landscape. It seems that to answer this question one must study the details of how BBs nucleate and how string vacua … Continue reading →

Posted in Multiverse Mania | 17 Comments

Gross on Outlook for String Theory

Posted on August 22, 2008 by woit

David Gross just finished giving the closing talk at Strings 2008, on the outlook for string theory, following a talk by Hirosi Ooguri summarizing the conference. Strings 2009 will be in Rome next June, and it appears that there is … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 55 Comments

Freed on Chern-Simons

Posted on August 20, 2008 by woit

Dan Freed has a wonderful preprint out on the arXiv this evening, based on a talk he gave at the celebration of MSRI’s 25th anniversary, entitled Remarks on Chern-Simons Theory. It’s mainly about the current state of attempts to better … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 10 Comments

Strings 2008

Posted on August 17, 2008 by woit

Strings 2008 starts tomorrow at CERN, with about 400 physicists in attendance. CERN will be providing a live webcast for the rest of us. The timetable of the talks is here. The first afternoon will be devoted not to string … Continue reading →

Posted in Strings 2XXX | 24 Comments

The Landscape at CERN

Posted on August 14, 2008 by woit

The current plan at CERN is to celebrate my birthday by trying to circulate the first beam around the LHC on September 10 (actually my birthday is September 11, but in recent years my family, like CERN, has tended to … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 9 Comments

Grothendieck’s Later Years

Posted on August 8, 2008 by woit

Alexander Grothendieck’s 80th birthday was this past March, and the September Notices of the AMS has several articles about his later years. There’s a long piece entitled Who is Grothendieck?, by Winfried Scharlau, who is writing a three-volume biography. The … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 24 Comments

Furby, Tamagachis, string theory…

Posted on August 8, 2008 by woit

Things don’t seem to be going well these days for string theory in the “marketplace of ideas”. From an article about gasoline-saving pedals: The 1990’s were the host of many great fads. Furby, Tamagachis, string theory, the examples are as … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 43 Comments

FQXI and Templeton News

Posted on August 5, 2008 by woit

The FQXI organization has just announced the details of $2.7 million dollars in grants that it will be handing out. The winners and their projects are described here. As usual, one of the main topics funded by FQXI is multiverse … Continue reading →

Posted in Multiverse Mania | 45 Comments

ICHEP 2008

Posted on August 4, 2008 by woit

A major HEP conference, ICHEP 2008, is taking place in Philadelphia at the moment, and many of the talks are already available online here. This is mostly a conference devoted to experimental HEP, and the big news is the joint … Continue reading →

Posted in Experimental HEP News | 11 Comments