Monthly Archives: March 2016

Short Items

Posted on March 30, 2016 by woit

A few short items: Beams are back in the LHC. You can follow what is going on here real-time, or here for details of this year’s beam commissioning. Physics runs scheduled to start last week of April. There’s a wonderful … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 9 Comments

Two Book Reviews

Posted on March 28, 2016 by woit

Blogging has been light here, trying to finish a complete draft of the book I’m working on, this should be done very soon. Here are a couple all-too-short reviews of books with some relation to math or physics. A Doubter’s … Continue reading →

Posted in Book Reviews | 8 Comments

Number Theory News

Posted on March 16, 2016 by woit

Andrew Wiles is the recipient of this year’s Abel Prize. I have to confess that I found this surprising, since I assumed he’d already won this. His work in general and specifically the work that led to the proof of … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 20 Comments

The Ultimate Simplicity of Everything

Posted on March 14, 2016 by woit

There’s a wonderful interview with Perimeter Institute director Neil Turok here, entitled The Ultimate Simplicity of Everything, and done for a Canadian radio program. Turok discusses his point of view on whether we’re at “the end of physics”, and I’m … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 10 Comments

This and That

Posted on March 9, 2016 by woit

A few short items: Nature has an editorial this week summarizing the situation with the 750 GeV possible diphoton bump. It mentions a new paper analyzing related data (the number of theory papers on this as a function of time). … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 7 Comments

Multiverse Observed, South of Glasgow

Posted on March 4, 2016 by woit

It turns out the multiverse does exist, just off the A76, 25 miles north of Dumfries in Scotland. It’s called the Crawick Multiverse and is now open 10 am to 4 pm. Admission is 5 pounds, but parking is free. … Continue reading →

Posted in Multiverse Mania | 18 Comments

Michael Atiyah’s Imaginative State of Mind

Posted on March 3, 2016 by woit

Quanta magazine has an intriguing article by Siobhan Roberts out about Michael Atiyah, and what he’s up to these days. It mentions some new ideas about twistor theory I hadn’t heard about, that emerged from a conversation with Penrose, which … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 13 Comments

Who’s Winning the String Wars and Why Should You Care?

Posted on March 1, 2016 by woit

Part two of Gerald Alper’s piece at Smashpipe is now available there, with the title Who’s Winning the String Wars and Why Should You Care?, and some more substantive material than in part one. One of the great things about … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 30 Comments