Author Archives: woit

This Way to the Universe

Posted on February 10, 2022 by woit

There’s a new popular book out this week by string theorist Michael Dine, This Way to the Universe, as well a a new Sean Carroll podcast interviewing him about the book and the state of particle theory research. According to … Continue reading →

Posted in Book Reviews, Multiverse Mania | 9 Comments

Notes on the Twistor P1

Posted on January 29, 2022 by woit

I’ve just finished writing up some notes on what the twistor $P^1$ is and the various ways it shows up in mathematics.  The notes are available here, and may or may not get expanded at some point.  The rest of … Continue reading →

Posted in Euclidean Twistor Unification, Langlands | 8 Comments

This Week’s Hype

Posted on January 21, 2022 by woit

For many years, editions here of This Week’s Hype were mainly devoted to bogus claims that someone had found a way to get a testable prediction out of string theory or other “evidence for string theory”. Recently there have been … Continue reading →

Posted in This Week's Hype | 30 Comments

Yet More Math and Physics Items

Posted on January 14, 2022 by woit

Various items that may be of interest: Robbert Dijkgraaf was sworn in a few days ago as Minister of Education, Culture and Science in the Dutch government. Unclear who if anyone is director of the IAS at the moment, but … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 11 Comments

Igor and Grichka Bogdanoff 1949-2021/22

Posted on January 4, 2022 by woit

A few days ago I heard news from Paris of the death of Grichka Bogdanoff on Dec. 28, and this morning heard of the death yesterday of his twin brother Igor. There are many news stories online (e.g. here), and … Continue reading →

Posted in Obituaries | 21 Comments

Witten Goes Anthropic

Posted on December 22, 2021 by woit

Multiverse mania started seriously among string theorists around 2003, with a defining event Susskind’s February 2003 The Anthropic Landscape of String Theory. At the time I was finishing up writing what became the book “Not Even Wrong”, and my reaction … Continue reading →

Posted in Multiverse Mania | 41 Comments

More Math and Physics Items

Posted on December 18, 2021 by woit

Yet more math items: First of all, congratulations to my colleague Johan de Jong, recipient of the 2022 AMS Steele Prize for Mathematical Exposition. Johan’s Stacks Project is very much deserving of such recognition. It’s both huge in scale and … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 16 Comments

Some Math and Physics Items

Posted on December 7, 2021 by woit

First some math news: An anonymous commenter claims here that the 2026 ICM will take place in Philadelphia. I had heard that a US group was submitting a proposal, so this rumor is plausible. Many mathematicians and physicists have signed … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 24 Comments

Lex Fridman Podcast

Posted on December 3, 2021 by woit

A couple months ago I recorded a podcast with Lex Fridman, it’s now available here. A lot of Fridman’s other interviews are well worth watching or listening to, and I thought we had an interesting conversation. I can’t stand listening … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 22 Comments

Unifying Foundations for Physics and Mathematics

Posted on November 28, 2021 by woit

During recent travels I attended two conferences (in Paris and Berkeley) and met up with quite a few people. At the Paris conference I gave an intentionally provocative talk to the philosophers of physics there, slides are here. The argument … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 15 Comments